Gay barber detained

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. Rodney Taylor, a Georgia barber, has been pursuing permanent residency for years. Now, he faces deportation to Liberia despite being in the U.S. since childhood. Rodney Taylor loves the feeling.

Gay Venezuelan Makeup Artist Among Hundreds Deported Without Due Process The man's lawyer says he was "disappeared" to El Salvador after being falsely accused of gang affiliations. A gay makeup artist was deported to El Salvador after U.S. immigrations officials claimed his "mom" and "dad" tattoos were "consistent" with gang activity. Rachel Maddow reported Thursday night that a young gay Venezuelan man, deported without due process under a administration directive, has been identified publicly for the first time.

The Brief. Andry Hernandez

A report approved by the police-officer-turned-prison-contractor claimed the Venezuelan man was a member of the notorious gang Tren de Aragua. But the credibility of Charles Cross Jr. He appealed the decision and resigned in the process, according to the department. Earlier misdeeds had landed him on the Milwaukee County Brady List , a compilation of law enforcement officers deemed by county prosecutors to have credibility problems.

Cross, an employee of CoreCivic, which runs many of the immigration detention centers for U. Entrusting private contractors — and not federal agents — to determine whether migrants are members of a criminal gang adds a new level of apprehension, migrant advocates and a former ICE official said. We are confident in our intelligence," the department said in a statement attributed to a "Senior DHS Official," without naming the official.

That would be insane. The Justice Department contends has the authority to wield the Alien Enemies Act, a law that has been invoked only in times of declared war against other countries, to hasten the deportation of suspected gang members he said have invaded the United States. More: banished her husband to El Salvador. Work and worry are all she has left. Hernandez, 30, fled Venezuela last year because he claimed he was persecuted as a gay man — one of the protected groups allowed to claim asylum under U.

Photos posted to his Instagram site show him applying makeup and wearing bejeweled crowns. Hernandez initially tried crossing into the United States illegally and was intercepted by U. Border Patrol agents, who returned him to Mexico, according to court filings. Hernandez repeatedly denied being part of the group.

On one form, dated Dec. A few weeks after being reviewed by Torres and Cross, about March 6, Hernandez was transferred to a federal detention center in Texas, his attorney wrote in a court filing. Sandweg, the former ICE acting director, said ICE agents routinely investigated whether detained migrants had gang affiliations or criminal histories. Historically, the gang designation was something made by a federal official and reviewed by supervisors before the allegation went in front of an immigration judge, he said.

But his tenure was cratered with controversy. In , he received a misdemeanor conviction after kicking in the door of the apartment he shared with his girlfriend and threatening to kill himself with his service revolver, according to court records. He lost his job but later was reinstated after appealing to the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission. That incident landed him on the Brady List, which gives defense attorneys a chance to contest an officer's credibility if they're called to testify.

In , Cross was arrested again after driving his car into the side of a house, court records show. His blood alcohol level was more than double the legal limit for driving. He was ticketed for first-offense drunken driving after the crash, court records show. After an internal investigation, Cross was fired from the force in October He appealed and later resigned.

Greg Chen, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, questioned the legality of having contract workers make such consequential decisions. He was a makeup artist at a state-run television station but was constantly discriminated against and threatened for his sexual orientation and political views, according to the affidavit. Home U. Gay Venezuelan stylist sent to Salvadoran prison after a disgraced cop's report The imprisoned man sought shelter in the U.