By Samuel Miller
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America and Oceania
LOS ANGELES, United States of America — On Thursday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled a transgender illegal immigrant who suffered years of sexual and physical abuse in Mexico cannot be deported despite a felony conviction, because she is protected under international anti-torture conventions. Transgender people can be especially vulnerable to harassment and attacks and shouldn’t be equated with gays and lesbians by U.S. immigration officials determining whether to grant asylum, the federal appeals court said Thursday.
The judges said Mexico suffered from an epidemic of unsolved violent crimes against transgender persons.
The three-member 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel found that a federal immigration board that ordered her deported had confused sexual orientation with gender identity.
Writing in the ruling for the 9th Circuit panel, Judge Jacqueline Nguyen said, “Evidence of country conditions shows that police specifically target the transgender community for extortion and sexual favors, and that Mexico suffers from an epidemic of unsolved violent crimes against transgender persons.”
Edin Avendano-Hernandez said she had been sexually assaulted by uniformed Mexican police and a military official for being transgender. The Board of Immigration Appeals wrongly relied on Mexican laws protecting gays and lesbians to reject Avendano-Hernandez’s asylum request, the ruling states.
According to the ruling, Avendano-Hernandez was born male but grew up in Oaxaca, Mexico, believing that she was female and suffered years of abuse over her gender identity, including beatings, sexual assaults and rape.
That abuse continued into her adulthood and she suffered at the hands of the Mexican police and military before seeking refuge in the United States. After seeking refuge in the US in 2000, Ms. Avendano-Hernandez was twice convicted of driving under the influence in 2006. She was thus ordered deported by immigration officials.
Ms. Avendano-Hernandez suffered further abuse on her return to Mexico and went back to the US, where she was later arrested for probation violation. Facing deportation again, she applied for refuge under the United Nations Convention Against Torture.
The 9th Circuit sent the case back to the Board of Immigration Appeals with instructions to grant Avendano-Hernandez’s application for relief under the Convention Against Torture.
After the latest ruling, Ms. Avendano-Hernandez’s lawyer, Munmeeth Soni, told the Associated Press: “She [Ms. Avendano-Hernandez] is ecstatic. The fear was constantly hanging over her head that she might have to one day turn herself in to return to Mexico. She no longer lives under that fear.”
For more information, please see:
Advocate.com — U.S. Appeals Court Grants Mexican Trans Woman Asylum – 4 September 2015
BBC News — Transgender ruling: US court opposes Mexican’s deportation – 4 September 2015
ABC News — Court: Transgender Asylum Seekers Can’t Be Equated With Gays – 3 September 2015
Reuters — U.S. court: Transgender illegal immigrant cannot be deported to Mexico – 3 September 2015
