A Houston man was detained by ICE at his final asylum hearing for U.S. residency, despite a determination that he had “credible fear” he’d be killed for being gay in his home country.

Jorge Amado Hernandez, originally from Honduras, arrived in court in November for what he thought would be the final step on a years-long path to legal residency in the U.S.

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“It was a trap,” said his husband, David Torres.

Hernandez arrived in the U.S. in 2016, fleeing what he said were death threats by a local MS-13 gang after he was seen spending time with another man, the Houston Chronicle reports.

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He was held by ICE in Pennsylvania that year and sat for a “credible fear” interview to make a determination on his asylum claim. Hernandez said a gang member warned him they were “cleaning” the neighborhood of “f*gg*ts like you” and that he was next.

“They’re going to kill me” if he returned, Hernandez told the interviewer.  

Authorities granted Hernandez a positive determination, and he was released to his aunt in Texas, where he met Torres and the two later married.

Since then, the couple has worked through the legal process to obtain Hernandez’s permanent residency. They opted not to claim it based on their marriage, which would have required Hernandez to return to Honduras and face his tormentors.

Last month’s hearing should have been the culmination of their legal efforts.

Instead, Hernandez was arrested and has spent the last month in an ICE detention facility, suffering inhumane conditions, according to his husband.

Torres made clear Hernandez has no criminal history.

“We’re pretty vanilla. We just get up, go to work, come home, and hang out with family,” Torres said. “That’s it.”

According to an ICE spokesperson, Hernandez was arrested for “immigration violations” and remains in custody “pending disposition of his removal proceedings.”

ICE falsely claimed Hernandez was “unvetted,” saying “illegal aliens like this individual who have no lawful basis to remain in the U.S. will finally be held to account for violating our nation’s laws.”

Hernandez is one of hundreds of asylum seekers ambushed by ICE at court hearings around the country, as the Trump administration sweeps up immigrants with or without any criminal record.

At a hearing following his detention, an immigration judge told Hernandez and his lawyer that he was unable to release Hernandez on bond on orders of the Department of Homeland Security. DHS policy adopted in July requires ICE to keep immigrants who’ve entered the country without inspection in custody during removal proceedings, regardless of criminal record or how long they’ve been living in the country.

While a federal judge struck down that policy at the end of November, the Trump administration has ignored the order, and Hernandez remains in custody. He’s scheduled for a new court date in January.

Hernandez has described bleak conditions at the detention facility, according to Torres, where he and other detainees have been forced to sleep on the floor in cramped holding cells. Torres says his husband was denied anxiety medication in his first weeks in detention.

Despite the ordeal, Torres remains hopeful in conversations with Hernandez — if anything, just to spare him his own anxiety as he contemplates his husband’s suffering.

“It’s been nothing but a month of anguish,” Torres said. “There’s this feeling in the pit of your stomach, like things aren’t right. It makes you cry sometimes. It’s a travesty.”

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