13 h. ago Joe Rogan breaks with Trump, calling Venezuelan deportations ‘horrific’

Influential podcast host and prominent Trump supporter criticizes administration for removal of gay makeup artistJoe Rogan, the influential podcast host and prominent supporter of Donald Trump, has criticized the president’s administration over the deportation of a professional makeup artist and hairdresser to a prison in El Salvador, calling it “horrific”.Andry José Hernández Romero, who is gay, had sought asylum in the US, telling officials he faced persecution because of his sexual orientation and political views. But US immigration officers argued the crown tattoos on his wrists were proof he was part of Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang, despite Hernández Romero telling them he was not. Last month, he was flown from Texas to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, a facility that his lawyer said was “one of the worst places in the world”. His removal comes as the administration undertakes what Trump has pledged would be a mass deportation campaign. Continue reading...

Politics

23 h. ago Packed off to hell hole prison for Christian tattoos: Gay makeup artist is deported to El Salvador by Trump administration after border agents said his ink looked like a Venezuelan gang symbol

Andry Jose Hernandez Romero, 31, was detained at the Mexico-US border last year when he requested entry to attend a pre-arranged asylum hearing in San Diego, California

Events

40 h. ago Trump administration's stunning revelation about father deported to hellhole El Salvador prison

At least one man has been illegally deported from the US to a hellhole prison in El Salvador by mistake, the Trump administration admitted in court.

Events

40 h. ago ‘He is not a gang member’: outrage as US deports makeup artist to El Salvador prison for crown tattoos

Andry José Hernández Romero sent to an El Salvador prison after claim ‘crown’ tattoos proved he was a gang memberFor as long as anyone can remember Andry José Hernández Romero was enthralled by the annual Three Kings Day celebrations for which his Venezuelan home town is famed, joining thousands of fellow Christians on the streets of Capacho to remember how the trio of wise men visited baby Jesus bearing gold, frankincense and myrrh.At age seven, Andry became a Mini King, as members of the town’s youth drama group Los Mini Reyes were known. Later in life, he tattooed two crowns on his wrists to memorialise those carnival-like Epiphany commemorations and his Catholic roots. Continue reading...

Events

58 h. ago Trump administration says it deported 17 more ‘violent criminals’ to El Salvador

The Trump administration says it has deported 17 more “violent criminals” from the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gangs to El Salvador, as it doubles down on a policy of removing people from the U.S. to third countries despite criticism over lack of transparency and human rights protections

Politics

61 h. ago How the Trump administration is using tattoos to lock up immigrants in El Salvador

Venezuelan men in streetwear with Michael Jordan and autism awareness tattoos could add up enough ‘points’ for their removal from the United States, Alex Woodward reports

Events

7 d. ago Trump administration official visits El Salvador prison where deported Venezuelans are held

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca

Politics

7 d. ago Appeals court won't halt order barring Trump administration from deportations under wartime law

A federal appeals court won’t lift an order barring the Trump administration from deporting Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under an 18th century wartime law

Events

8 d. ago Homeland Security Secretary Noem visits the El Salvador prison where deported Venezuelans are held

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is visiting the high-security El Salvador prison where Venezuelans who the Trump administration alleges are members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang have been held since their removal from the U_S_ Noem’s Wednesday trip to the prison where inmates are packed into cells and never allowed outside comes as the Trump administration seeks to show it is deporting people it describes as the “worst of the worst.”

Events

8 d. ago Trump administration refuses to answer judge’s questions over El Salvador deportation flights, citing ‘state secrets’

Officials tell Judge Boasberg that ‘no further information will be provided’ after a weeklong standoff

Politics

1 week ago Judge demands answers from White House on deportation flights to El Salvador

Jeb Boasberg instructs Trump administration to explain how refusal to return flights did not violate court orderA federal judge instructed the Trump administration on Thursday to explain why its failure to turn around flights carrying deportees to El Salvador did not violate his court order in a growing showdown between the judicial and executive branches.James Boasberg, the US district judge, demanded answers after flights carrying Venezuelan immigrants alleged by the Trump administration to be gang members landed in El Salvador after the judge temporarily blocked deportations conducted under an 18th-century wartime law. Boasberg had directed the administration to return planes that were already in the air to the US when he ordered the halt. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago ‘We don’t know how any of this will play out’: what’s next for US deportees in El Salvador

Political scientist Mneesha Gellman on the deportees’ fates, dire prison conditions and Bukele-Trump parallelsThe Trump administration has flown 238 Venezuelans to an El Salvador prison that human rights groups say is designed to disappear people.Despite a judge’s order temporarily blocking the move, the US government flew more than 200 men that it had accused of gang membership to the “Terrorism Confinement Center”, or Cecot – a draconian mega-prison that has become central to the promise of the Salvadorian president, Nayib Bukele, promise to rid his country of crime. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Trump administration says ‘many’ Venezuelans deported to El Salvador prison have no criminal record

ICE officials suggest a lack of information about immigrants summarily deported to the mega prison ‘highlights the risk they pose’

Events

2 w. ago Trump waging ‘sickening’ psychological war, deported Venezuelan’s lawyer says

One detained man’s lawyer says he is gay artist who had fled persecution in his home country, not a gang memberA lawyer for one of the Venezuelan immigrants sent from the US to a notorious mega prison in El Salvador has accused the Trump administration of waging a “sickening” campaign of psychological warfare against asylum seekers and migrants.“In my 15 years of representing people in removal proceedings in the United States, this is the most shocking thing that I’ve ever seen happen to one of our clients,” said Lindsay Toczylowski, a California-based lawyer for the Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef) group. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Trump administration deports alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador despite court order

El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said 238 members of the Tren de Aragua gang had arrived in the country

Events