Under Trump’s crackdown on asylum, the U.S. government is preparing to send a woman back to a place where she was beaten and raped for the “crime” of being a lesbian
By last year, Margaret had spent nearly six years masking her identity, in constant fear of being discovered, with only a few of her closest friends knowing she was queer. Although she’d enrolled in college, rumors were spread about her sexuality, and, in the face of discrimination from her peers and the school, she had quickly dropped out. It was a hard lesson for her. “You’re supposed to keep yourself secret,” she explains. “You’re not supposed to let anyone know about you.
But the morning after the festival, as she was leaving Margaret was dragged off the road, blindfolded, beaten, raped, and left in the bush to die. “I tried to call for help, but I couldn’t,” she says. She was bleeding badly and could barely move. The men who attacked Margaret were in plain clothes, and although she doesn’t know if her attackers were police or soldiers, they had made clear that they had targeted her because they believed she was a lesbian.
Within days of the police raid, she would flee her country. “It was scary,” she says. “But I was determined to move. Because if I stay in my country, I’d die.”over the past decade, thanks to restrictions on visas and heightened scrutiny of foreign travelers after 9/11, which has limited migrants’ ability to fly directly into the United States. As a result, tens of thousands of migrants from the Middle East,, and Asia have made the long, often dangerous trip to the U.S.’s southern border.
Once in Mexico, non-Central American migrants who are detained are typically given temporary travel papers that allow them to move openly through the country to the U.S. border. While that makes it possible to use the countries cheap and relatively efficient bus system, it is still dangerous. Migrants are regularly robbed, often by the bus operators, and cartels and other gangs stop buses to demand money from passengers.
The trip took several days, and at some point, her bag, which had been checked onto the bus, was stolen — along with all of her money, her phone, and most importantly nearly all the documentations she’d brought with her. Without her phone, she couldn’t contact her friends in Uganda to wire money, leaving her nearly penniless when she finally arrived in Juárez. Still, she assumed there would be plenty of time to contact friends once she crossed the border, where the U.S.
The decision to come to the U.S., made every day by thousands of desperate people around the world, is an understandable one. Over the past two centuries, the United States has positioned itself as a symbol of freedom and democracy, the defender of democracy, and a society where even the most outcast are welcome.
In some places, like Tijuana, the U.S. relies on Mexican officials to control access to the border. But in Juárez, DHS has set up new checkpoints just inside Mexican territory, where anyone walking across the border must first show passports before even being allowed to exit Mexico. Manned by armed Customs and Border Patrol agents and surrounded by a wall of razor wire and Klieg lights, these checkpoints are a show of force aimed at deterring people from trying to ask for asylum.
A migrant wakes up before sunrise at the Buen Pastor shelter for migrants in Cuidad Juárez, Mexico. Photo credit: Gregory Bull/AP/Shutterstockisn’t on most maps, which is probably a good thing. Because its tucked deep within one of Juarez’s most dangerous neighborhoods on a short, narrow dirt road, the cartels, pimps, coyotes, and cops who prey on immigrants probably have no idea it’s even there.
Like almost every shelter in northern Mexico, Buen Pastor relies on private donations of food, medical supplies, clothes, and medicine to help the scores of migrants who have found themselves stuck here. Meeting even the most basic of needs is a constant struggle — shelters across the city report difficulties ensuring that they’ll have enough food for residents on a daily basis.
For members of the LGBTQ community, it can be particularly difficult. Because of the conditions in their home countries, “these LGBT asylum seekers are arriving traumatized…[now] they’re in this state of limbo,” Wegs says. “And Juárez is such an unsafe city. People are living with palpable fear.”at Buen Pastor on the morning of September 12th, the pressure and uncertainty had become too much for Margaret.
Despite the many hurdles DHS has thrown up to asylum, Oretskin hoped that the often haphazard way the new rules are enforced could work in Margaret and Kodi’s favor. While traditionally asylum cases have always been extremely difficult for Mexican and Central American migrants to win in the El Paso immigration court, in the past some of the DHS officers and immigration judges have been slightly more sympathetic to people from African nations.
日本 最新ニュース, 日本 見出し
Similar News:他のニュース ソースから収集した、これに似たニュース記事を読むこともできます。
Kerr Smith Reflects on 'Huge' Responsibility of Jack's Coming Out Storyline on 'Dawson's Creek'Dawson’s Creek alum recalls learning his character, Jack, would come out as gay – and spills on recent cast reunion (via toofab)
続きを読む »
Disney Just Released A Video Of EVERYTHING Coming To Disney PlusHow much time do you have?
続きを読む »
Gwen Stefani, Blake Shelton Coming To Terms With Never Having A Baby Together?Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton are not struggling to accept the fact they'll never have a baby together. It's just a made-up tabloid rumor. Gossip Cop found it false.
続きを読む »
SoftBank, JP Morgan to submit separate WeWork bailout proposals in coming daysWeWork's board will examine funding proposals led by SoftBank and J.P. Morgan in the coming days and could make a decision by the end of the week, people familiar with the matter say.
続きを読む »
Tekashi 6ix 9ine Docuseries Coming From Showtime and Rolling StoneShowtime Documentary Films today announced a new limited docuseries profiling controversial rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine. Titled “SuperVillain” and inspired by the Rolling Stone feature written by Stephe…
続きを読む »
The Complete Studio Ghibli Catalog Is Coming to HBO Max
続きを読む »