Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.

Deported Makeup Artist Andry Hernández Romero’s American Nightmare

He came to the US with a dream of a beauty career free of persecution. Instead, Andry Hernández Romero disappeared for months into one of the world’s worst prisons. Now, he’s rebuilding his life from scratch.

Makeup artist Andry José Hernández Romero is welcomed home by his community in Capacho, Venezuela on July 24, 2025. (Getty Images/Federico Parra)

Liz Flora

25 September 2025

BoF PROFESSIONAL

Two months after his release from one of the world’s most notorious prisons, Andry José Hernández Romero is back in the hometown where he became a makeup artist 12 years ago. He’s beginning to return to the types of jobs that launched his career: weddings, quinceañeras and local festivals. But things are different.

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Venezuelan Makeup Artist Returns Home, Describes Torture During El Salvador Detention

Andry Hernández Romero’s story highlights growing alarm over US immigration tactics and alleged abuses in El Salvador’s mega-prison.

Makeup Artist Andry Hernández Romero Released From CECOT Prison

An asylum seeker deported from the US to the notorious El Salvador prison, Hernández Romero was identified arriving in Venezuela as part of a prisoner swap.

Attorney for Deported Makeup Artist: If ‘It Could Happen to Him … It Could Happen to You.’

Lindsay Toczylowski, whose client Andry José Hernández Romero has not been heard from since his deportation to El Salvador in March, forcefully defended the rule of law in a talk at The Business of Beauty Global Forum.

About the author

Liz Flora

Liz Flora is a Beauty Correspondent at Business of Fashion. She is based in Los Angeles and covers beauty and wellness.

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