An individual believed to be a gang member and deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador’s dangerous prison system had been previously removed from the US before the Biden administration allowed him entry using the CBP One phone application, according to sources.

Andry Hernandez Romero, a migrant from Venezuela aged 31, was taken to El Salvador in March alongside a group of 260 other alleged gang members after President Trump utilized the Alien Enemies Act from the 18th century to deport them without a hearing.

In July 2024, he initially crossed the US border into Texas but was promptly expelled. However, he reappeared the following month, as per sources.

By August that year, Romero found his way to California, where he entered the US using the since-shuttered CBP One phone application program.

The Trump administration shut down the CBP One entry function for migrants on Inauguration Day and later created the CBP Home app to give illegal migrants the option to self-deport from the US.

The Venezuelan citizen fled his home country after he was targeted for being gay and having certain political views, his attorneys said. He worked in Venezuela at the state-run TV station as a makeup artist for on-air talent, according to CBS News.

“And the government had found that his threats against him were credible and that he had a real probability of winning an asylum claim,” Lindsay Toczylowski, Hernandez Romero’s lawyer, said.

A photographer who captured the moment Hernandez Romero was escorted into the megaprison in El Salvador reported hearing the migrant cry out, “I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a stylist” as he was slapped and had his head shaved, according to CBS News.

“It’s horrifying to see someone who we’ve met and know as a sweet, funny artist in the most horrible conditions I could imagine,” Toczylowski said. 

Immigration agents tagged Hernandez Romero as an alleged Tren de Aragua gangbanger based on his two crown tattoos.

But Toczylowski claimed that the tattoos honored his parents.

“These are tattoos that not only have a plausible explanation because he is someone who worked in the beauty pageant industry, but also the crowns themself were on top of the names of his parents,” Toczylowski said.

“The most plausible explanation for that is that his mom and dad are his king and queen.”

However, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin claimed that the agency’s “intelligence assessments go well beyond just gang affiliate tattoos.”

“This man’s own social media indicates he is a member of Tren de Aragua.

Alleged MS-13 gangbanger Kilmar Abrego Garcia was also shipped off to the South American country with Hernandez Romero.

Several federal courts, including the Supreme Court, determined that the Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia as a result of a “clerical error” and ordered the White House to return him to the US.

But the Trump administration has thus far refused to bring Abrego Garcia — who has been tagged as an alleged human trafficker, wife beater and gangbanger — back.