Sunday, May 05, 2019

Finally Some Good News

Lately it has been very hard to find some good news on the Trans Front but down in Texas by a federal judge.
10 transgender women seeking asylum just won their immigration cases after months of violence and discrimination
CBS News
By Kate Smith
May 2, 2019

Ten transgender women who traveled with the caravan that President Trump targeted during the midterm elections have won their asylum cases and been released from a detention center in Texas.

For Estrellita, the decision to flee her home country of Honduras to seek asylum in the United States wasn't an easy one. Even though she faced discrimination for being transgender, she considered staying so she could help others like her.

"I wanted to change things but that made me more of a target," Estellita told CBS News via email. "I was assaulted and threatened by those who didn't agree with me and hated trans people. I love my country and wouldn't have left but for the persecution I suffered. But I thought the U.S. would be pretty and the people would be nice and that has turned out to be true."

The 10 were part of a roughly 80-member group of LGBTQ migrants from Central America that splintered off from a much larger caravan of thousands that came up through Central America in the fall. The larger group was a frequent target of Mr. Trump in the lead up to the 2018 midterm elections. Mr. Trump often referred to the group as an "invasion," despite the group being hundreds of miles away.


Given today’s political climate out of Washington this is really good news considering however other trans asylum seekers have been refused asylum or had other legal troubles.

Recently freed Honduran transgender woman detained again by Ice
Nicole GarcĂ­a Aguilar fled Honduras after being subjected to sexual assault and attempted murder linked to her gender identity
The Guardian
By Nina Lakhani
26 Apr 2019

A Honduran transgender asylum seeker who was released last week after a year incarcerated in immigration centres has been re-detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).

The move was condemned by her legal team as punitive and damaging to the young woman’s physical and mental health.
[…]
Garcia legally claimed asylum upon arriving at the southern US border in April 2018. She was transferred to the country’s only specialist transgender unit in Cibola county, New Mexico, as her claim progressed through the immigration courts.

Garcia was granted asylum by an immigration judge in October 2018. Despite the ruling, Ice refused to release her and appealed the asylum decision claiming there were inconsistencies in Garcia’s testimonies.
[…]
Before being released, Garcia was transferred to an Ice custody in El Paso, Texas, where she had a pending criminal charge. The charge was dismissed and Garcia finally released from Ice detention on 17 April but given no release paperwork – a document that is essential in order to travel freely and avoid detention at immigration checkpoints.
But her ordeal wasn’t over yet.
On 24 April, Garcia, accompanied by advocates from the Detained Migrants Solidarity Committee, went to the Ice office in El Paso to obtain her release paperwork where she was taken into custody.
Being a minority like Ms. Garcia is pure hell… being put in a men’s prison subject to sexual assaults and then placed in solitary confinement for her own protection is insane.

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