A disgraced former police sergeant’s report resulted in federal agents deporting a gay asylum-seeking Venezuelan makeup artist to a Salvadoran prison known for torture. The police-officer-turned-prison-contractor erroneously claimed that the barber had tattoos associated with Tren de Aragua, a terrorist group — his lawyer and Venezuela’s has said he has no connections whatsoever to the group.

The former sergeant, Charles Cross Jr., received a misdemeanor conviction in 2007 after kicking in the door of an apartment he shared with his girlfriend and threatening to kill himself with his service revolver. He was fired from a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, police department in 2012 after he drunkenly crashed into a house and was also being investigated for allegedly falsely claiming overtime hours. He appealed the firing but resigned during his appeal. His name was subsequently added to the Brady List, a list of police officers who are considered non-credible for providing legal testimony in Milwaukee County.

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He said that innocent being tortured without due process isn’t a big deal and “doesn’t mean you should stop” deportations.

Cross is now 62 years old and works for CoreCivic, a company that runs immigration detention centers for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Official forms cited by USA Today list Cross as the investigator who identified gay makeup artist Andry José Hernandez as a member of Tren de Aragua. Hernandez had fled his home country to avoid persecution for being gay.

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Cross claimed that Hernandez had crown tattoos associated with the gang. On a form dated December 10, 2024, that evaluated the likelihood of his being a Tren de Aragua member, Cross gave Hernandez a score of “5” for allegedly having gang tattoos. None of the other categories on the form, including “intelligence information received from other agencies” or “group photos” with other gang members, were checked on the form.

It’s unclear if federal agents evaluated Cross’ claim, what training Cross had in identifying gang members, or if CoreCivic or ICE used additional evidence to support his detainment. Hernandez’s lawyer, Lindsay Toczylowski, has said that her client’s tattoos show his love for the annual “Three Kings” festival in his hometown of Capacho, Venezuela. Additionally, a 2023 bulletin from U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that tattoos aren’t a reliable indicator of gang affiliation.

Nevertheless, an anonymous senior official with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told the aforementioned publication, “DHS intelligence assessments go well beyond just gang affiliate tattoos and social media. We are confident in our intelligence,” but added, “We aren’t going to share intelligence reports and undermine national security every time a gang member denies he is one. That would be insane.”

Hernandez became one of 260 Venezuelans accused by the current U.S. presidential administration of being members of Tren de Aragua. The 260 detainees were sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center, an overcrowded, “filthy, and disease-ridden” prison known for torturing its inmates and denying them access to adequate healthcare and food, according to Human Rights Watch.

Venezuela’s interior minister has said that none of the aforementioned deportees are members of Tren de Aragua. ICE has told Toczylowski that they will neither facilitate communication with Hernandez nor make him available for any future court proceedings, effectively denying him any avenue for legal relief.

The 260 detainees were targeted by the U.S. for mass deportation under the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law used to deport foreign hostile agents from the U.S. during times of declared conflict without any court hearings. Congress is the only governmental body that can legally declare that the U.S. is in an active conflict, and it has not yet done so in this instance.

Some of the men detained and deported by the U.S. are now having their removal and imprisonment contested in federal courts.

“People are being rendered to a torture prison on the basis of these flimsy and inaccurate determinations,” said Heidi Altman, vice president of policy at the National Immigration Law Center. “Using private prison contractors to make those determinations is just another level of recklessness.”

CoreCivic said that all of its employees complete “a rigorous, federal background clearance process” that depends upon ICE approval. The company also said that ICE makes all final deportation decisions.

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