Transgender Immigration: Honduras
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Transgender in Honduras
At least 17 transgender people have been killed in public places in Honduras since 2004. None of these killings have led to a prosecution or conviction.
The Human Rights Abuses against Transgender People in Honduras Report of May 29, 2009, details the abuses based on gender identity and expression, including rape, beatings, extortion, and arbitrary detentions by law enforcement officials. It documents police inaction and recurrent failure to investigate violence against transgender people.[1]
According to the Human Rights Watch, since the release of the report, 34 members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community have been murdered in Honduras. Of these 34 murders, there has only been one successful prosecution and conviction for an attack on a transgender woman.[2]
Case Study: Carolina
"The children on the playground ridiculed her. Her father whipped her. Police officers tortured and molested her. But it wasn't until after military officials gang raped her, Carolina said, that she took action on her dream: to leave her native Honduras for a safer life in America.."[3]
Now 50 years old, Carolina crossed the border into the United States illegally. She had had to resort to prostitution in order to reach the border. Once in the U.S., she found work as a seamstress in Long Beach. Trying to overcome past traumas, Carolina found solace in d, was caught with a meth pipe by police and detained in Santa Ana Jail. Her case was taken over by Drew Patterson and Alicia Macklin as a pro bono one. Through their work, Carolina was able to avoid deportation because they demonstrated she would most likely face torture.
US Law
Fear, based on transgender identity, of returning to the country of which one has citizenship may qualify as a reason for asylum in the United States. The requirements include needing to demonstrate past persecution (harm directly from the government or from others that the government was unable or unwilling to control) and/or well-founded fear of future persecution.[4]
See also
References
- ↑ Human Rights Watch (2009), "Not Worth a Penny: Human Rights abuses against Transgender People in Honduras"
- ↑ Human Rights Watch (2011), "Honduras investigates murders of transgender women"
- ↑ Carcamo (2011), "Faces of Immigration: Transgender immigrant avoids deportation"
- ↑ Asylum rules for transgender people in the U.S.
