Gay asylum-seeker sent to CECOT used as pawn in ‘political prisoner swap’

Andry Hernández Romero is no longer in El Salvador. But they sent him back to Venezuela from which he was seeking asylum for being gay.

Photo: Andry Hernández Romero via Instagram.

I’m livid.

Andry Hernández Romero (say his name out loud) is no longer in CECOT but don’t you dare call that justice.

He’s not free. He’s not safe. He was used.

He was traded and then dumped back in the very country he was trying to escape: Venezuela.

Venezuela is a place where LGBTQ people like Andry are hunted, brutalized, and killed, according to Human Rights Watch.

He came to the U.S. legally. He followed every rule. He asked for asylum like we told him to. He believed in the promise of safety, of refuge. And what did we do?

We called his tattoo a gang symbol with zero proof. ICE decided he looked like a threat, so they disappeared him into El Salvador’s nightmare prison (actually a concentration camp), CECOT, like he was nothing.

No charges. No justice. Just locked up and forgotten.

That alone was monstrous.

But now?

The Trump administration used him as a pawn in a political game. Like a piece on a board.

They yanked him out of one hellhole and threw him into another, back into the hands of the very regime he risked everything to escape.

That’s not mercy. That’s not compassion. That’s not justice.

That’s cruelty. Everything about this is plain cruelty.

The message from this administration is loud and clear:

If you’re LGBTQ, if you’re running for your life, we don’t care.

You’re not human to them. You’re a bargaining chip. Disposable.

Andry Hernández Romero deserved protection. He deserved dignity.

Instead, we used him, chewed him up, and threw him back to the wolves.

I’m not just angry. And I can’t be quiet because in a different time, I could easily have been him.

This is state violence.

This is betrayal.

And as Americans, we have blood on our hands.