Lawyer of ‘Disappeared’ Venezuelan Make-Up Artist: He Was Detained Because of Tattoos You See in Any Cafe in America

EXCERPT:

TOCZYLOWSKI: “That’s correct. Names and identities of people have been shared today via a list. And so, we know that it is inevitable that our client will be identified and we feel it’s important to let the world know who Andrys, our client is, because he is a human being. He is a young professional from Venezuela. He’s a makeup artist. He is a gay man. He is someone who came to the United States seeking protection. He came seeking asylum. Upon entry into the United States, he was detained because of his tattoos, some of which you can see in those photos, but these are not the tattoos of somebody who is involved with gangs, these are normal tattoos that you would see on anybody at a coffee shop anywhere in the United States or Venezuela. And today we have confirmation from the government, one of the few groups of attorneys that have confirmation that our client is indeed in El Salvador. You know, our client last week was supposed to appear in court where we would have started the process of refuting the baseless allegations against him, but we never got to have that chance. Our client has been forcibly removed and disappeared and we don’t know what his legal case, where it goes from here.”