The good news tonight is that Andry Hernandez Romero, the Venezuelan hairdresser sent to CECOT, is among the 200 Venezuelans released from the El Salvador mega prison, according to a conversation The Bulwark had with his attorney. They were exchanged for 10 Americans detained in Venezuela. The bad news is that Andry has been sent back to Venezuela, the very country he was seeking to escape, along with other asylum seekers. Perhaps his international fame will keep him from being re-imprisoned, discriminated against and persecuted for being a gay Venezuelan male. But there is no longer a reason for a spotlight to remain on him.

While assisting with an asylum case for a Venezuelan family seeking to stay in the States, it’s been disturbingly easy to access information about persecution of disfavored social groups in the country controlled by Nicolas Maduro. It is highly unlikely the dictator is just going to be nice to a man the whole world knows is gay and didn’t want to live under Maduro’s government or to any of the other non-gang members who fled. But at least none of these men are still being abused in a penal institution where administrators famously say the only way people leave their walls is in a box.

With the earlier return to the U.S. of Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was also sent to CECOT and is still fighting to remain in the United States, and the release of student activists kidnapped off the street for being pro-Palestinian supporters, the pattern is clear. Making noise seems to actually matter. Ranting about the same injustice, as often as the news requires, matters. The presidents of the three nations involved in the exchange today may all present themselves as heroes for being strong and/or magnanimous. But Donald Trump was starting to get killed in the polls on his best issue. It’s a fair bet that it’s because of the noise.

Andry may not live the life he would have, the life he wanted here in the States, nor will the other asylum seekers who never got their day in court. But tonight we at least know he will live. His attorneys thanked The Bulwark crew for sounding the alarm the loudest for Andry – and in doing so, highlighting that more than a few egregious mistakes were made rounding up people for that court-order-defying flight to El Salvadore.

Sometimes noise matters. Now is the time to get louder.