Andry José Hernández Romero has a tattoo of a crown on each of his wrists, with the words “Mom” and “Dad”.

The symbols refer to the annual El Día de los Reyes Magos (Three Kings Day), the epiphany festival celebrated in the Spanish-speaking world for which his Venezuelan home town is famed.

But to the US immigration officers who detained Mr Hernández and marched him onto a plane headed for a maximum security jail in El Salvador, the tattoos were proof enough he belonged to a deadly gang.

Mr Hernández, a gay professional make-up artist with no criminal record, is one of many caught up in Donald Trump’s extraordinary pursuit of illegal migrants.

Since the US president invoked a wartime law to rapidly deport members of criminal gangs such as Tren de Aragua, American immigration officials have been on the hunt for anyone with the crime group’s tattoos.