The 31-year-old is among multiple migrants whose family members or lawyers have said were wrongly accused by the Trump administration of gang affiliation and deported to a notoriously strict El Salvador earlier this month.
Topline
Immigration attorneys say a gay Venezuelan makeup artist seeking asylum in the U.S. was wrongly identified as a gang member and deported to El Salvador—a case becoming a flashpoint in the debate over the Trump administration’s deportation of hundreds of migrants to a notoriously inhumane El Salvador megaprison.Key Facts
Lindsay Toczylowski, founder of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, said she lost contact with her client, identified as a 31-year-old gay man from Venezuela, Andry (Toczylowski has withheld his full name due to safety precautions) who had no criminal history, when the Trump administration deported more than 230 migrants it claimed were members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to El Salvador on March 15.
Toczylowski said Andry disappeared from detention records the same day, and his name later appeared on an internal government list obtained by CBS of migrants deported to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, a mega-prison known for human rights violations.
ICE wrongly detained Andry last year, when he sought asylum over persecution for being gay and his opposition to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, because immigration officials thought his tattoos linked him to Tren de Aragua, according to tweets and media appearances by Toczylowski.
Andry is among multiple migrants deported to El Salvador whose attorneys and family members have said have no gang affiliation or even criminal records, and took the appropriate legal steps to seek asylum in the U.S.
The Trump administration claims it had the authority to deport the migrants it suspected of gang affiliation without court hearings under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798—a decision blocked by District Court Judge James Boasberg, who says it’s not a valid claim.
