Andry Omar Blanco-Bonilla, age 40, entered the US legally on the CPB-One app in December, 2023, receiving a work permit while his asylum was pending. He lived in Austin and worked as a painter, sending money back to his family in Venezuela.
On Feb. 21, 2024, he accompanied his cousin to an immigration check-in. While at the immigration center, an officer noticed one of Andry’s tattoos and asked him if he had more. Andry showed him all his tattoos, and the officer said they were detaining him and accused him of being member of the notorious Tren de Aragua gang. Andry’s family strongly denies this accusation.
Andry’s mother, Carmen Bonilla, said he was detained for five months, but never charged. During his incarceration, Andry developed high blood pressure and insomnia, she said, and was put on medications. During this incarceration, Andry agreed to be deported because he didn’t want to spend years in detention pending an asylum claim, and he was again released until his next check in.
Then on February 6th 2025, ICE came to Andry’s house to arrest him and put him back into detention pending deportation. Carmen last heard from Andry on Friday March 14. He told her he would be deported to Venezuela the next day. She waited for his call, but when none came, she started enlarging the photos and videos from the El Salvador flights to see if he was in any of them. She thought she saw him in one of the photos, and this was confirmed the following week when Andry was on the list of the men sent to El Salvador.
“I don’t know if they’re giving him his medication in there, if they’re checking him out,” Carmen said, “Now I’m even more worried because I see how they have been treated and pushed around. I’m sick, I don’t know what to do,” she added.
https://www.instagram.com/lorvismoreno/reel/DHephw-I0tI/
https://www.instagram.com/el_chino260185/
https://www.instagram.com/carmenbonilla7/reel/DHcVL3ktoB7/
https://diariovea.com.ve/madre-de-andry-blanco-bonilla-me-preocupa-la-salud-de-mi-hijo/
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