Some New York City teachers say it’s high time for a refresher on old-fashioned clocks.
Tiana Millen, an assistant principal at Cardozo High School in Queens, said this year’s ban on smartphones revealed that many teens struggle to read traditional clocks. “That’s a major skill that they’re not used to at all,” she said.
Overall, Millen said, the phone ban has been a major success at the school, and has helped kids focus in class and socialize at lunch. Foot traffic is moving more swiftly in hallways. Without eyes glued to their phones, more students are getting to class on time. The problem is they don’t know it, she said, “because they don’t know how to read the clocks.”
For years, parents and teachers have blamed technology for a range of lapsed skills — from legible handwriting to sustained attention to reading whole books — even as their proficiency with technology far outstrips their elders. Still, while educators have widely praised New York’s statewide smartphone ban that went into effect this fall, multiple teachers told Gothamist it has also laid bare an unexpected gap: How to tell time.
“The constant refrain is ‘Miss, what time is it?’ said Madi Mornhinweg, who teaches high school English in Manhattan. “It’s a source of frustration because everyone wants to know how many minutes are left in class. … It finally got to the point where we I started saying ‘Where’s the big hand and where’s the little hand?’”
According to the education department, students learn how to read clocks in first and second grade. “At NYCPS, we recognize how essential it is for our students to tell the time on both analog and digital clocks,” education department spokesperson Isla Gething said. “As our young people are growing up in an increasingly digital world, no traditional time-reading skills should be left behind.” Officials said kids are taught to master terms including “o’clock,” “half-past” and “quarter-to” in early elementary years.
After dismissal outside Midwood High School in Brooklyn, many students said they do know how to read wall clocks — but they have classmates who can’t.
“They just forgot that skill because they never used it, because they always pulled out their phone,” said Cheyenne Francis, 14.
“I know how to read a clock,” she added. ”The only time I guess I would struggle is if the time is wrong on the clock. Because sometimes they don’t set the proper time.”
Several students said clocks in their school are often broken.
Farzona Yakuba, 15, said she can tell time the old-fashioned way, but she empathizes with classmates who struggle.
“I feel like I’m one of those students sometimes because I know how to read the clock if I really need to. But I feel like most students here, they just get lazy and they ask. And I feel like I do that a lot,” she said.
Concern about students’ analog clock literacy predates the phone ban. In 2017, an Oklahoma study found only one in five kids ages 6-12 knew how to read clocks. England started replacing analog clocks in classrooms with digital ones in 2018. Grandfather and cuckoo clocks just aren’t as common as they used to be. Even kids who master clocks early on don’t have to practice that skill the way they used to.
“It’s underutilized,” said Travis Malekpour, who teaches social studies and math at Cardozo. He said he’s integrated telling time and managing calendars into some of his algebra lessons.
Kris Perry, executive director of Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development, said it makes sense that teens who have grown up in a fully digital environment haven’t had to practice analog clock-reading. She said the question is whether the shift amounts to a “a cognitive downgrade or just a replacement.”
She noted that brain scans have shown that holding books and handwriting generally lead to more brain activity than reading and typing on screens.
But several educators pointed out that while students’ clock-reading skills may be lagging, their digital skills are strong. Many schools have sophisticated coding and robotics programs, and teachers said they sometimes turn to kids for help with technology.
Mornhinweg said she recently had trouble opening a PDF for a lesson because of new software. She said her students calmly walked her through it.
“I was freaking out and they were like, ‘Miss it’s fine, this is what you do.’ I felt really old,” she said.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect the subjects Travis Malekpour teaches.
This is another act of war committed by the US on a sovereign country. What tRump is doing attacking boats and seizing tankers now doing land attacks is no difference from what Putin / Russia is doing to Ukraine. Plus only congress can authorize a war, not tRump. tRump is very honest as to why he is committing war crimes, he wants the oil for US companies and to get it he needs Maduro to leave office. The oil belongs to Venezuela and its people / government. It is not US oil nor US land. tRump is being a total school yard bully in that he attacks a smaller country that can’t fight back well while completely giving in to Putin who he fears. Hugs
The administration provided no details of what the president said was an attack last week linked to U.S. efforts to disrupt drug trafficking from Latin America.
Such an attack would be the first on land since President Trump began his military campaign against Venezuela.Credit…Eric Lee for The New York Times
President Trump said in a radio interview that the United States had knocked out “a big facility” last week as part of his administration’s campaign against Venezuela, an apparent reference to an American attack on a drug trafficking site.
American officials said that Mr. Trump was referring to a drug facility in Venezuela and that it was eliminated, but provided no details. Military officials said they had no information to share, and the Central Intelligence Agency declined to comment. The White House declined to comment.
Mr. Trump made his statement on Friday during an interview with John Catsimatidis, the Republican billionaire and supporter of the president who owns the WABC radio station in New York. The two men were discussing the U.S. military campaign to disrupt drug trafficking from Latin America by striking boats suspected of carrying narcotics.
“They have a big plant or a big facility where the ships come from,” Mr. Trump said, without saying where it was or explicitly identifying Venezuela as the target. “Two nights ago we knocked that out.”
Asked about the incident on Monday, Mr. Trump declined to say how the attack had been carried out or by whom but said it was along a shoreline.
“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” he told reporters at Mar-a-Lago, his club and residence in Florida. “They load the boats up with drugs. So we hit all the boats, and now we hit the area. It’s the implementation area, that’s where they implement, and that is no longer around.”
The attack appears to be the first known to have been carried out on land since he began his military campaign against Venezuela. U.S. officials declined to specify anything about the site the president said was hit, where it was located, how the attack was carried out or what role the facility played in drug trafficking. There has been no public report of an attack from the Venezuelan government or any other authorities in the region.
While some officials called the facility struck a drug production site, it is not clear what role in narcotics trafficking the facility would have played. Venezuela is well known for its role in trafficking drugs, especially cocaine produced in Colombia, but has not been a major producer of narcotics.
Mr. Trump has been promising strikes on land in Venezuela for weeks, part of an intensifying pressure campaign on Nicolás Maduro, the authoritarian leader of Venezuela, who is under indictment in the United States for his role in the drug trade.
Mr. Trump authorized the C.I.A. to begin planning covert operations inside Venezuela months ago.
The United States has been conducting military strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific since September. The administration maintains that the vessels are transporting cocaine. The operations have killed at least 105 people so far, and have been called extrajudicial killings by critics who say the U.S. military has no legal basis for lethal strikes against civilians. The administration has defended the attacks by asserting that the United States is in a conflict with what it calls narco-terrorists who can only be stopped with military force.
Those boat strikes were originally developed as part of a two-phase operation. The second phase, which has yet to be officially announced, was to include strikes on drug facilities in Venezuela, people familiar with the planning have said.
Since beginning the strikes, Mr. Trump has announced what he has called a blockade of Venezuela as the United States has begun trying to intercept oil tankers, cutting off a vital source of income for the Maduro government.
Exactly what operations Mr. Trump had in mind for the C.I.A. were not clear, but they could include both sabotage operations and psychological operations meant to prod Mr. Maduro into making some mistake.
Eric Schmitt, Edward Wong and Maria Abi-Habib contributed reporting.
Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
Julian E. Barnes covers the U.S. intelligence agencies and international security matters for The Times. He has written about security issues for more than two decades.
The United States is offering Ukraine security guarantees for a period of 15 years as part of a proposed peace plan, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday, though he said he would prefer an American commitment of up to 50 years to deter Russia from further attempts to seize its neighbor’s land by force.
U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Zelenskyy at his Florida resort on Sunday and insisted that Ukraine and Russia are “closer than ever before” to a peace settlement.
Negotiators are still searching for a breakthrough on key issues, however, including whose forces withdraw from where in Ukraine and the fate of Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, one of the 10 biggest in the world. Trump noted that the months long U.S.-led negotiations could still collapse.
“Without security guarantees, realistically, this war will not end,” Zelenskyy told reporters in voice messages responding to questions sent via a WhatsApp chat.
Ukraine has been fighting Russia since 2014, when it illegally annexed Crimea and Moscow-backed separatists took up arms in the Donbas, a vital industrial region in eastern Ukraine.
Details of the security guarantees have not become public, but Zelenskyy said Monday they include how a peace deal would be monitored as well as the “presence” of partners. He didn’t elaborate, but Russia has said it won’t accept the deployment in Ukraine of troops from NATO countries.
Trump and Putin discuss peace efforts by phone
Trump on Monday had “a positive call” with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the war, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X. The two leaders had also spoken shortly before Trump’s talks with Zelenskyy on Sunday as the American president tries to steer the countries toward a settlement.
Later, to reporters, the U.S. president similarly characterized the call as “a very good talk” and said “we have a few very thorny issues, as you can imagine” in the negotiations to end the war.
“If we get them resolved, you’re going to have peace,” he added.
Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said Trump is pushing Ukraine to seek a comprehensive peace agreement and not demand a temporary respite for its military through a ceasefire. Putin has insisted on a full settlement before any truce.
In Monday’s call, Putin told Trump that Ukraine attempted to attack the Russian leader’s residence in northwestern Russia with long-range drones almost immediately after Trump’s Sunday talks with Zelenskyy.
The attack “certainly will not be left without a serious response,” Ushakov said, adding that Moscow will now review its negotiating position.
Zelenskyy denied the Russian claim of an attack, describing it as an attempt to manipulate the peace process. He said it was “another lie” and came about because Moscow is unnerved by progress in peace efforts.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Ukraine launched an attack on Putin’s residence in the Novgorod region overnight from Sunday to Monday using 91 long-range drones.
“I don’t like it. It’s not good,” Trump said of the alleged attack on Putin’s home, confirming the Russian leader informed him of it during their call Monday morning.
Russia claims its forces are advancing
As indications suggest negotiations could come to a head in January, before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-blown invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Putin on Monday claimed that Russian troops are advancing in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine and are also pressing their offensive in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.
Putin has sought to portray himself as negotiating from a position of strength as Ukrainian forces strain to keep back the bigger Russian army.
He emphasized at a meeting with senior military officers the need to create military buffer zones along the Russian border. “This is a very important task as it ensures the security of Russia’s border regions,” Putin said.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Kyiv’s allies will meet in Paris in early January to “finalize each country’s concrete contributions” to the security guarantees.
Trump said he would consider extending U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine beyond 15 years, according to Zelenskyy. The guarantees would be approved by the U.S. Congress as well as by parliaments in other countries involved in overseeing any settlement, he said.
Zelenskyy said he wants the 20-point peace plan under discussion to be approved by Ukrainians in a national referendum.
However, holding a ballot requires a ceasefire of at least 60 days, and Moscow has shown no willingness for a truce without a full settlement.
Ukrainians doubt Putin’s sincerity
On the snowy streets of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, people were skeptical about the chances of peace.
One military veteran who uses the call sign Sensei, in keeping with the rules of the Ukrainian military, said Putin’s record in power shows he can’t be trusted. Sensei joined the military in 2022 and was wounded that year during the battle for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Now, he said, almost nobody from his company is still alive.
“But all these sacrifices, they are not in vain, because we need to prove … that we exist, that we are, that we have the right to our existence, to our territory, to our culture, to our language,” the 65-year-old veteran told The Associated Press.
Denys Shpylovyi, a 20-year-old student who was home for the holidays, said Trump’s willingness to accept Putin’s arguments has put Zelenskyy in a difficult situation.
“But I’m thankful for some progress. They are speaking, and maybe someday there will be hope,” he said.
Oleh Saakian, a Ukrainian political scientist, said it was a good sign that Zelenskyy is managing to build a relationship with Trump, although he noted that “nothing has been adopted yet, nothing has been signed yet.”
“I don’t see these negotiations bringing us closer to real peace, because they are based on equality between the aggressor and the victim, they are based on complete disregard for international law, and … disregard for European security,” he said.
___
Associated Press journalists Seung Min Kim in Washington, and Vasilisa Stepanenko and Volodymr Yurchuk in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.
Ellie House and Mike Wendling Gainesboro, Tennessee
BBC/Ellie House
Real estate developer Josh Abbotoy on the site of his planned future development outside Gainesboro. Abbotoy’s customers, including two self-described Christian nationalists, have caused controversy locally
As Josh Abbotoy gazes out at lush green woods and pastureland nestled among Tennessee’s Appalachian hills, he describes what he intends to build here: a neighbourhood with dozens of residential lots, centred around a working farm and, crucially, a church.
“A customer might very well buy and build roughly where we’re standing right now,” he says as we hike up to the top of a ridge.
Mr Abbotoy is founder of the real estate company Ridgerunner, which has bought land here and in neighbouring Kentucky. But his is no garden-variety housing development.
Mr Abbotoy is prominent in US conservative circles and describes his development as an “affinity-based community” – marketed to people not only interested in the peace and quiet of rural life, but in a constellation of right-wing ideals.
“Faith, family and freedom,” he says. “Those are the values that we try to celebrate.”
BBC/Mike Wendling
Josh Abbotoy points to a map of his development in the Ridgerunner offices in Gainesboro
Initially he didn’t attract much local attention after setting up shop in Jackson County.
But in late 2024, a local TV news report broadcast controversial statements made by two of Mr Abbotoy’s first, and most outspoken, customers: Andrew Isker, a pastor and author originally from Minnesota, and C Jay Engel, a businessman from California.
They are self-described “Christian nationalists” who question modern values, such as whether female suffrage and the civil rights movement were good ideas, and call for mass deportations of legal immigrants far in excess of President Donald Trump’s current plan. Another thing they sometimes say: “Repeal the 20th Century.”
The TV report raised an alarm bell amongst some local residents.
“You don’t know who these people are, or what they’re capable of,” says Nan Coons, a middle-aged woman who spoke in a firm southern accent during a recent interview near the town square in Gainesboro – of which this land is a part.
“And so it’s scary.”
Although Abbotoy himself does not identify as a Christian nationalist, he says concerns about his tenants are overblown.
The Ridgerunner development has since drawn national attention. And people in Gainesboro, home to around 900 people and one traffic light, have now found themselves in the middle of a dispute that is a proxy for much bigger political battles.
Podcasters move in
Mr Isker and Mr Engel announced their move to Gainesboro last year on their podcast Contra Mundum – Latin for “against the world”.
On their show, which is now recorded in a studio within Ridgerunner’s Gainesboro office, they have encouraged their fans to move into small communities, seek local influence, and join them in their fight to put strict conservative Christian values at the heart of American governance.
“If you could build places where you can take political power,” Mr Isker said on one episode, “which might mean sitting on the [board of] county commissioners, or even having the ear of the county commissioners and sheriff… being able to do those things is extremely, extremely valuable.”
Contra Mundum
C Jay Engel (l) and Andrew Isker (r) shown during an episode of their podcast
On X, Mr Engel has popularised the idea of “heritage Americans” – a fuzzy concept but one that applies mainly to Anglo-Protestants whose ancestors arrived in the US at least a century ago. He says it is not explicitly white, but it does have “strong ethnic correlations”.
He’s called for mass deportations of immigrants – including legal ones – writing: “Peoples like Indians, or South East Asians or Ecuadorians or immigrated Africans are the least capable of fitting in and should be sent home immediately.”
In their broadcasts and writings they have also expressed anti-gay sentiments. The podcasters deny they are white nationalists.
Both are Ridgerunner customers, and Mr Isker’s church will move into the community’s chapel when it’s complete.
The ‘resistance’
Their hardcore views have alarmed residents, with some locals setting up an informal resistance group.
“I believe that they have been attempting to brand our town and our county as a headquarters for their ideology of Christian nationalism,” says town matriarch Diana Mandli, a prominent local businesswoman who until recently owned a pub on Gainesboro’s central square
Late last year, Mandli led the charge by writing a message on a chalkboard outside her business: “If you are a person or group who promotes the inferiority or oppression of others, please eat somewhere else.”
BBC/Mike Wendling
More signs opposed to the new development followed. When people caught wind that the Ridgerunner guys were holding a meeting at a nearby fast food joint, dozens turned up to confront them.
Ms Coons, whose ancestors have lived in Gainesboro since around the time of the US Revolutionary War, says she engaged Mr Engel in conversation.
“He explained to me that what they’re promoting is what he called ‘family voting’… one vote per family, and of course, the husband in that family would be the one voting” with women frozen out of the electorate.
Mr Engel has since said publicly that it’s not “wrong” for women to vote, although he does support the idea of household suffrage.
BBC/Mike Wendling
Local residents put up a billboard outside of town
In a county that voted 80% for Donald Trump in the last election, Ms Coons is used to living next door to neighbours with conservative views.
But she and others came away from the protest convinced more than ever that the beliefs of their new neighbours were too extreme.
They say they don’t want to run them out of town, but intend to sound the alarm about what they say are extreme views, as well as thwart any future attempt to take over the local government.
“This is where we have to draw the line,” Ms Coons says.
What is Christian nationalism?
Christian nationalism is a nebulous worldview without a single coherent definition.
At the extreme end, as outlined by theorists including author Stephen Wolfe, Christian nationalists advocate for rule by a “Christian prince” – an all-powerful religious dictator, who reigns over the civil authorities and leads his subjects to “godliness”.
Less extreme versions take the form of calls for Christian law to be explicitly enshrined in American legal codes, for religious leaders to get heavily involved in politics, or simply for an acknowledgement of the Christian background of America’s founding fathers.
This multiplicity of definitions has created a strategic ambiguity that experts say has helped Christian nationalism seep into the mainstream.
Big ideas or far-right plan?
Mr Abbotoy’s development is still in the early stages – his company is building roads and organising sanitation infrastructure. When the BBC visited in November, workers were busy knocking down a decrepit old barn, one of many that dot the Appalachian landscape.
But business is brisk. Around half of the lots are already under contract. Mr Abbotoy anticipates that the first houses will be built and new customers will begin moving in at the beginning of 2027.
BBC/Ellie House
Building on the Brewington Farms site will start within months, with new residents moving in soon, in just over a year
Many of his customers, he says, are moving to heavily Republican Tennessee from Democratic-majority states like California and New York.
“People want to live in communities where they feel like they share important values with their neighbours,” he says.
Mr Abbotoy says he doesn’t call himself a Christian nationalist, but describes the criticism of his customers as “absurd” and says they have no intention to try to take over local government.
“They’re talking about big ideas and books,” he says. As for some of their more controversial views, he insists that “rolling back the 20th Century can mean a lot of things. A lot of conservatives would say we took a lot of wrong turns.”
Mr Isker and Mr Engel did not respond to multiple requests for comment and a list of questions.
BBC/Ellie House
Nan Coons belongs to an informal group of Gainesboro residents who are alarmed at their new Christian nationalist neighbours
Small-town fight goes nationwide
The fight here in Gainesboro has drawn in players far from small-town Tennessee.
Mr Abbotoy, who was educated at Harvard Law School, is also a partner at a conservative venture capital fund, New Founding, and a founder of the American Reformer, a website that has published the writings of a number of other prominent Christian nationalists.
His opponents meanwhile have received research assistance and advice from a national organisation, States at the Core, established last year to tackle authoritarianism in small communities. It is funded by a constellation of left-wing organisations. States at the Core declined our request for an interview.
The men of Ridgerunner have pointed to the organisation as evidence that the pushback against their project has been orchestrated by powerful liberals. The locals say this is ridiculous.
“Nobody’s cut me a cheque to say anything,” Ms Coons says.
In Gainesboro, people on all sides see a much bigger story – one of large-scale political fights playing out in rural America.
Republicans have made huge gains in rural areas this century, and in 2024 Trump stretched his lead in rural communities, winning 69% of the vote. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee recently announced a reported eight-figure investment ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, a chunk of which will be dedicated to winning rural voters.
“There’s definitely a renewed, [Democratic Party] focus on rural engagement,” Mr Abbotoy says. “And at the same time, there’s been a wave of people moving to small town America precisely because they like the Bible Belt, they like the conservative traditional culture.”
But Nan Coons and her allies say they aren’t ready to concede rural areas like her hometown to Christian nationalists.
“If we are going to turn this tide, it starts on your street, it starts in your neighbourhood, it starts in your small town,” she says.
“I have to stand for something, and this is where I stand.”
Hey Tumblr, I forgot to tell you… but look at that!! First Assigned Male book in COLOR! 32 pages of AWESOME! It even features comics that aren’t online!
More tRump stupidity / tRump putting his branding everywhere / is he the president or chief architect / Fluffing tRump’s ego / tRump’s grifting / tRump’s lies & misinformation
That’s $100,000/head. tRump doesn’t care as he spends the taxpayers money / countries treasury like a drunk spending other peoples money. He is a tryant in that he thiinks that money is his todo what he wants even though the law states that only congress controls spending. This is human traficing plain and simple. Hugs
In September 2025, Turner’s agency sponsored a far-right anti-LGBTQ extremist to lead a massive Christian nationalist rally on Washington DC’s National Mall, the first-ever such event formally sanctioned by the federal government.
In June, it was reported that Turner is moving to take over the former National Science Foundation building as his agency’s headquarters, where he has demanded a full-floor executive suite, a private dining room, and parking for his five personal cars.
It is not lost on me that the above story is a woman with a career telling other woman they need to be stay at home mothers / trad wives to please a man because of religious dogma. Hugs
Yarborough appeared here last month for his bill that would ban Pride flags at government buildings, including public schools.
He appeared here in April 2025 for his bill that would ban thousands of books, including classic novels, over sexual content.
Yarborough appeared here March 2025 for his bill that would ban civil rights ordinances enacted by cities and counties, including, presumably, LGBTQ protections.
He first appeared on JMG in 2010, when as a member of the Jacksonville City Council he declared that gays, Muslims, and atheists should not be permitted to hold public office, otherwise God will smite the country.
In April 2023, lawmakers approved Yarborough’s ban on drag shows before minors. Yarborough is also the author several anti-trans bills.
Borrero appeared here in 2023 for a ban on Pride flags that died in committee. He tried again last year, but that attempt died after passage in its first committee hearing.
Borerro first appeared on JMG in January 2022 for his successful bill mandating that Florida public schools recognize an annual “Victims Of Communism Day.”
Oltmann appeared here last year when he called for executing Joe Biden, adding, “I want to send the mainstream media to the gallows, radical leftists to the gallows, traitors to our nation to the gallows, and they all kind of fit in the same bucket.”
In 2022, he appeared here when he announced that he would lead a “well-armed action” to install Kari Lake as governor of Arizona.
In 2021, he appeared here when he called for executing the 19 Republican Senators who voted to avert a government shutdown.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem | Steven Spearie/The State Journal-Register / USA TODAY NETWORK
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) confronted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about the administration sending a gay man to a prison camp in El Salvador and not even knowing if he’s still alive. Noem said that it wasn’t her problem.
Noem, who has bragged in the past about shooting her dog to death, appeared before the House Homeland Security Committee for a hearing yesterday, where Garcia asked her about Andry Hernandez Romero, a gay hair dresser from Venezuela who came to the U.S. legally to escape anti-LGBTQ+ violence and who was sent to the CECOT camp in El Salvador, which is known for torturing inmates, earlier this year.
The administration, which sent immigrants to the CECOT without letting courts determine if they were in the country illegally or if they had committed any crimes, has refused to try to bring anyone back from the camp.
“Would you commit to just letting his mother know – as a mother-to-mother – if Andry is alive?” Garcia asked Noem. “He was given an asylum appointment by the United States government. We gave him an appointment, we said, Andry, come to the border at this time and claim asylum, he was taken to a foreign prison in El Salvador.”
“His mother just wants to know if he’s alive. Can we check and do a wellness check on him?”
Noem said she doesn’t “know the specifics” of Hernandez Romero’s case but said that since he’s in El Salvador, Garcia should be asking El Salvador’s government about him.
“This isn’t under my jurisdiction,” Noem said.
Garcia reminded her that she said that the Salvadoran prison is a “tool in our toolkit” for fighting crime.
“You and the president have the ability to check that Andry is alive and not being harmed,” he said. “Would you commit into at least looking and asking El Salvador if he is alive?”
“This is a question that is best asked to the president and the government of El Salvador,” Noem responded drily.
Hernandez Romero is a Venezuelan immigrant who trekked to the U.S. and entered legally last year at San Diego. There, he asked for asylum, saying that he was being targeted in Venezuela for being gay and due to his political beliefs. He was held in a CoreCivic detention center, where he was screened by Charles Cross Jr.
“The government had found that his threats against him were credible and that he had a real probability of winning an asylum claim,” his lawyer, Lindsay Toczylowski, said.
In March, he, along with over 200 other immigrants, was taken in shackles to the CECOT camp in El Salvador. Even his lawyer said she didn’t know what happened to him until he was gone and missed a hearing in his immigration case.
In a video from the CECOT, Hernandez Romero could be heard saying, “I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a stylist,” as he was slapped and had his head shaved.
It was later revealed that the evidence Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had against Hernandez Romero was his tattoos, which came from a report from the contractor CoreCivic, specifically from former police officer Charles Cross Jr., who lost his job with the Milwaukee police after he drunkenly crashed into a house and allegedly committed fraud. 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.
Cross claimed that Hernandez Romero had crown tattoos associated with a gang. The tattoos are labeled “Mom” and “Dad” and are common symbols associated with his hometown of Capacho, Venezuela. Capacho is known for its elaborate festival for Three Kings Day, and a childhood friend, Reina Cardenas, told NBC News that it was that festival that awakened Hernandez Romero’s desire to be an artist.
“Andry dedicated his life to arts and culture, and he worked hard to better his craft,” Cardenas said.
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BBC/Ellie House
Real estate developer Josh Abbotoy on the site of his planned future development outside Gainesboro. Abbotoy’s customers, including two self-described Christian nationalists, have caused controversy locallyBBC/Mike Wendling
Contra Mundum
BBC/Mike Wendling
BBC/Mike Wendling
BBC/Ellie House
BBC/Ellie House
Alex Bollinger (He/Him)May 15, 2025, 9:14 am EDTHomeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem | Steven Spearie/The State Journal-Register / USA TODAY NETWORK
Scottie's Playtime 