Torres targets prison ‘VIP perks’ after Hernández case

ban on – Rep. Norma Torres says taxpayer-funded “red carpet” treatment for Juan Orlando Hernández—after Trump pardoned him—cannot happen again, and she’s pushing a new House amendment to bar the Bureau of Prisons from offering special accommodations, lifting detainers

When Rep. Norma Torres talks about what happened after President Donald Trump pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández. she doesn’t start with policy. She starts with the image of it: a high-security prison in West Virginia. a detainer that should have kept a man held. and then a four-man tactical team working overtime to drive him for six hours to a five-star hotel in Manhattan.

Torres. a California Democrat. introduced a provision last month as an amendment to a House appropriations bill that would bar the Federal Bureau of Prisons from using taxpayer funds to provide “special accommodations or transportation” to convicted drug traffickers and child traffickers—even if they are pardoned or receive a sentence commutation. The amendment would also restrict the bureau and several other agencies from lifting “any detainers not provided to other inmates.”.

Torres told colleagues that there “should never be preferential treatment for narco leaders. ” framing the effort as an enforcement issue rather than a political one. Her argument is rooted in ProPublica’s reporting on the release process for Hernández. the former Honduran president who was freed late last year.

Hernández had been sentenced to 45 years in prison for taking bribes and for allowing drug traffickers to export more than 400 tons of cocaine to the U.S. while he was in office. He has long maintained his innocence. Still, after Trump pardoned him in December, he received what Torres and others described as “red carpet” treatment.

On the day of his release. ProPublica found. Hernández had an immigration detainer in place—a formal request for law enforcement agencies to hold noncitizens for pickup by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Instead of holding him, the Federal Bureau of Prisons “scrambled” to get the detainer removed so he could walk free.

Then. rather than providing him a bus ticket or airfare to get home. prison officials paid a four-man tactical team overtime to drive him six hours from a West Virginia high-security facility to the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan. New York. according to records and three people familiar with the situation.

Torres’s amendment was designed to stop that kind of scenario. It would prevent the Bureau of Prisons from paying for special arrangements or transportation and from handling detainers in a way that leaves pardoned or commuted people treated differently from other inmates. The language also targeted special accommodations for “convicted drug traffickers and child traffickers.”.

Her push met immediate resistance in Congress. Last month, the amendment hit an early stumbling block when the House Appropriations Committee voted along party lines against including it in its proposed 2027 spending bill.

After the vote. Torres said in a press release that “Taxpayer dollars should not be used to give convicted criminals special accommodations. lifted legal holds. or government-funded transportation. ” adding: “We should be enforcing the law. not handing out favors. I’m shocked that my Republican colleagues didn’t agree with that common sense idea.”.

The committee vote itself reflected the partisan divide: 31 Republicans opposed the amendment and 27 Democrats supported it.

Torres’s plan didn’t end with the committee, though. In a statement to ProPublica last week, she said she planned to raise the issue before the Rules Committee, which can decide whether previously rejected amendments still get a vote on the House floor.

“I am not giving up,” Torres said, adding: “The American people deserve a government that enforces the law fairly and holds powerful criminals accountable, regardless of who pardons them.”

A Bureau of Prisons spokesperson declined to comment on the measure out of respect for members of Congress. Previously. a spokesperson said the bureau does not discuss conditions of confinement or security procedures and that employee standards of conduct prohibit staff from giving any prisoners preferential treatment. ICE. when questions were raised earlier. referred them to the White House. which this week did not respond to a request for comment.

Torres’s focus is also bound up with how Hernández became a U.S. political symbol—before and after his pardon. Before his arrest and controversial release. Hernández had been a polarizing figure. plagued by allegations of corruption in his country. Yet he was seen as a key U.S. ally under the Obama and first Trump administrations. in part because of his apparent interest in tackling drug trafficking and migration issues.

The case that ultimately landed him in U.S. custody began with family ties. In 2018, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration arrested his younger brother, former Honduran congressman Tony Hernández, on weapons and drug trafficking charges. In 2019, a jury found Tony Hernández guilty in a Manhattan federal trial.

Weeks after the elder Hernández left office in 2022, he was arrested in Honduras and extradited to the U.S. to face drug trafficking and weapons charges. Prosecutors said Juan Orlando Hernández funded his political career with money he received from “violent drug-trafficking organizations” in exchange for allowing them to “move mountains of cocaine” out of the country. During trial, prosecutors said he bragged he would “stuff the drugs right up the noses of the gringos.”.

In early 2024, after a federal jury voted to convict him, Hernández was sent to a notorious high-security penitentiary in West Virginia to serve his time. He appealed to Trump’s sympathies, penning a four-page letter framing his case as a “political persecution” by the Biden administration.

Trump announced his intent to pardon Hernández in November—two days before the Honduran presidential election that swept Hernández’s right-wing National Party back into power. Experts told ProPublica that the timing sent an obvious message on the eve of a tight race; one former high-ranking U.S. diplomat previously told ProPublica that the pardon was a show of support that served as a “clear green light for the National Party to manipulate the vote.”.

The election of Nasry “Tito” Asfura, who had been trailing in multiple polls, came amid reports of voter intimidation and fraud allegations. After the election, Asfura promised to “work tirelessly for Honduras.”

On Dec. 1, Trump formally granted Hernández the full pardon. By the end of that day. ProPublica reported. Hernández was on his way to the swank. five-star hotel in New York City. Days later. Renato Stabile. Hernández’s court-appointed lawyer. filed a motion to vacate the judgment and dismiss the indictment in light of the presidential pardon. When prosecutors didn’t file a response opposing it, a federal court agreed to Stabile’s request.

Stabile previously told ProPublica that Hernández’s treatment during the release process was appropriate. saying Hernández could have been arrested or killed if deported to his home country. Stabile declined to comment on where Hernández stayed but said the government did not pay the bill. Hernández declined to comment through his attorney.

Long before the pardon. the elder Hernández case had already drawn heavy scrutiny in Honduras. but the release process landed in the U.S. spotlight in a different way—especially among correctional workers. At the time. Joe Rojas. a retired prison worker and former union leader. said that BOP staff were “disgusted” after the agency “rolled out the red carpet” for Hernández.

When Torres brought her amendment before the 63-member House Appropriations Committee. she held up a printed copy of ProPublica’s investigation as she described the special treatment Hernández received and how the prisons agency had used “our hard-earned taxpayer dollars” to pay for his transport to New York.

“These actions can never be allowed to happen ever again,” Torres told her colleagues.

Two other lawmakers spoke in support of the measure. Rep. Hal Rogers. a Kentucky Republican. opposed it and called the amendment “performative and unnecessary. ” but he did not explain his reasoning to the committee. and his office did not respond to an emailed request for comment. None of the Republican members who voted against the amendment responded to requests for comment.

Torres is now looking to the Rules Committee, where a 9-4 Republican majority makes it unlikely the measure will move forward right now.

The calendar may still matter. If House Republicans and Democrats fail to agree on spending bills before the end of this Congress, the November elections could shift the balance of power and give Democrats more say over what amendments make it to the floor next year.

For Torres. the fight is ultimately about what happens after a pardon—whether the government treats a powerful figure differently enough that taxpayers end up paying for favors. And for the people who keep institutions running. the question has already landed with force: after Hernández. what does “security procedure” mean when discretion turns into a convoy to a Manhattan hotel?.

Norma Torres Bureau of Prisons VIP perks Juan Orlando Hernández Trump pardon detainer ICE immigration detainer House Appropriations Committee Rules Committee federal prisons convicted drug traffickers child traffickers taxpayer-funded transportation