Thread: More Immigrants Seek Asylum Over Sexual Orientation

More Immigrants Seek Asylum Over Sexual Orientation
Tuesday, October 27, 2009


WORCESTER, Massachusetts — For weeks, Nathaniel Cunningham and his boyfriend secretly lived together in rural Jamaica. They showed no affection in public and rarely spoke to neighbors.

Then one morning, Cunningham picked up a local newspaper with a front-page story under the headline, "Homosexual Prostitutes Move into Residential Neighborhood." His address was listed below.

For days afterward, Cunningham said an angry mob gathered on his lawn hurling rocks and bricks and calling them "batty boys" — a Jamaican slang term for gay. Eventually, the pair grabbed what they could and fled on foot. Cunningham said neither he nor his boyfriend were prostitutes — the slur was just another example of the abuse gay men faced in Jamaica.

The story was one of many that Cunningham, now 32 and living in Worcester, recently shared with a federal immigration judge in his successful bid to win asylum in the United States. And it's similar to other stories cited by a small but growing number of other gay, lesbian and transgender asylum seekers who are using U.S. immigration courts to argue that their sexual orientation makes it too dangerous for them to return home.

"I had no choice," said Andre Azevedo, 39, a transgender man from Brazil who recently won asylum and now lives in New York. "Where I'm from, heterosexual men practice hate crimes against us like a sport, and the police do nothing to stop it."

Since 1994, sexual orientation has been grounds for asylum in the United States. That's when former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno ruled in a case that persecution based on sexual orientation could be potential grounds for asylum.

Until recently, those grounds have been rarely used and such cases represent only a fraction of all asylum cases.

But now immigrant and gay activists say more asylum seekers from the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean are citing sexual orientation as reasons for seeking asylum. Activists say the asylum seekers are escaping rape, persecution, violence, and threats of death from places where homosexuality is either outlawed or strongly, socially shunned.

Federal immigration law allows individuals asylum if they can prove a well-founded fear of persecution in their country of origin based upon race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Those applying for asylum are already in the United States, legally or illegally.

No one knows for sure just how many have sought asylum on sexual orientation grounds. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services doesn't keep data on asylum cases won on that basis.

Still, last year Immigration Equality, a New York-based nonprofit group that helps gay clients with immigration cases, successfully won 55 asylum cases using sexual orientation as grounds, a record for the organization, said the group's legal director Victoria Neilson. That's up from 30 wins in 2007 and 27 in 2006, Neilson said.

And a Worcester, Massachusetts-based nonprofit group, Lutheran Social Services, has recently won five cases and is looking to help others.

"I think more people are finding out that this is an option," said Lisa Laurel Weinberg, an attorney with the group.

However, not all cases for asylum based on sexual orientation have been successful. For example, a gay Brazilian man who was married in Massachusetts and whose American husband remains in the state was recently denied asylum by the Obama administration on humanitarian grounds, despite pleas from Sen. John Kerry. Genesio "Junior" Januario Oliveira had originally requested asylum because he was raped as a teenager, but an immigration judge denied the application, saying Oliveira repeatedly said in the hearing that he "was never physically harmed" by anyone in Brazil.

He was forced to return to Brazil in 2007.

Cunningham said he decided to file for asylum after working for a few years in the United States on a work visa. He conducted research online but couldn't find an immigration group to help him with the case. "One group said my case clashed with their Christian values," Cunningham said.

Many gay rights groups, he said, also had limited services for immigrants.

It wasn't until Cunningham connected with Jozefina Lantz, the director of immigrant services at Lutheran Social Services, that Cunningham gained support.

To win, however, Cunningham had to revisit painful moments of running from mobs in Jamaica. Even the police would point him out for persecution, he said. In successfully arguing Cunningham's case for asylum, Weinberg also said Jamaica's sodomy laws banning sex between men and "dancehall" music — whose lyrics often advocate violence against gays — made life for Cunningham unbearable.

Cunningham won asylum in January 2008.

During his asylum hearing, Azevedo had to recall violent episodes in Brazil when he and a group of transsexuals were attacked in bars. He recalled a transgender woman set on fire. Each time Azevedo said he went to police about an attack or a threat, the officers didn't even bother to file a report.

"I had such a horrific experience," said Azevedo, who was granted asylum in July. "I was always in fear of being raped, maybe even killed."

After winning their cases, both Cunningham and Azevedo have become advocates for other asylum-seekers by giving them counseling and directing them toward legal help.

In Worcester, for example, Cunningham has helped a Lebanese and three others Jamaicans win asylum with the legal help provided by the Lutheran Social Services' "LGBT Human Rights Protection Project." Another case, involving an Ugandan woman, is pending in the courts.

But while those who have been granted asylum are eager to help, Azevedo said many still haven't resolved the pain from the past and can't go back home to visit family — those who haven't disowned them.

Cunningham said he hasn't gotten over the fear that, at any moment, he may be forced to flee.

"I've never really owned furniture," Cunningham said. "You just never know."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,569845,00.html

Haverhill man to fight government's refusal to grant asylum to his husband Deadline passes with no decision from government

By Paul Tennant
ptennant@eagletribune.com

HAVERHILL — A prominent city businessman said he will challenge the federal government's refusal to grant his Brazilian husband asylum in the United States.

"We're going to federal court with a DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) challenge," Tim Coco said last night.

Coco's husband, Genesio "Junior" Oliveira, has said he feared being returned to Brazil because he was raped there as a teenager.

Coco, who owns and operates the COCO+CO. advertising firm in Haverhill, said Attorney General Eric Holder did not act on a Friday deadline in Oliveira's case, effectively denying the 30-year-old man's request for asylum on humanitarian grounds.

"We needed the attorney general to make a decision on whether Junior could come home," said Coco, 48. "He didn't take this request seriously.''

The Justice Department did not immediately return messages.

Coco submitted the following statement to the media:

"Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. betrays the civil rights movement from which he has benefited.

"His office passed up a Friday deadline to retract a July 27, 2009 letter to Senator John F. Kerry. The letter, kept under wraps while both sides continued to negotiate, sets back decades of legal precedent by preposterously ruling 'forced' sex is not rape.

"Senator Kerry alerted Holder last March that forced sex is, in fact, the definition of rape. At that time, Senator Kerry correctly asserted that the claim is 'outrageous' and asked Holder to intervene in the adverse asylum ruling against my spouse, Genesio ''Junior'' Oliveira Jr., made by an illegally appointed immigration judge. All these months later, the attorney general's woefully delayed and inadequate response overlooks the facts that Junior's testimony has already been ruled 'credible' and his fear of Brazil 'genuine.'"

In 2002, Oliveira had sought asylum in the United States because he said he was raped as a teenager in Brazil. But an immigration judge denied his request and Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich said in a letter that Oliveira repeatedly remarked at his hearing that he "was never physically harmed" by anyone in Brazil. Coco said Oliveira was referring to street beatings.

Oliveira returned to Brazil in 2007 after losing an appeal. Before he left, he and Coco married in Massachusetts in 2005 and bought a house together.

Immigrants also can apply for residency if they marry U.S. citizens. But the federal government does not recognize gay marriages under the Defense of Marriage Act, and Oliveira's request to remain in the United States based on his relationship with Coco was denied this year.

In March, Kerry asked Holder to grant Oliveira asylum on humanitarian grounds. Kerry spokeswoman Brigid O'Rourke said yesterday the senator will continue to work toward a solution that would reunite the couple for good.

"The fact is that if Tim and Junior were a heterosexual married couple, they would never have suffered through more than two years of separation," O'Rourke said.

Coco said he thought there was "no way" the Obama administration would deny Oliveira's asylum request after Kerry made his plea to Holder.

"We are profoundly sad," said Coco. "This is more than any married person should have to face."

Coco said he has spent about $250,000 on legal bills and hasn't seen Oliveira since January, though the two video chat online every night.

Oliveira was denied a visa to return to Massachusetts last year for the funeral of Coco's mother. Oliveira now lives with his mother, helping her run a boarding house for students. Coco said the couple plans to launch a legal challenge against the federal Defense of Marriage Act as a violation of immigration laws.

"This is our last shot, if nothing else works," said Coco. "But we think we can pull this off with the right legal counsel."

O'Rourke said Kerry supports the couple's legal challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act, which limits how state, local and federal bodies can recognize partnerships and determine benefits. He also called for a law to extend benefits to domestic partners.

This month, President Barack Obama called on Congress to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.

Material from the Associated Press was also used in this report.

http://www.eagletribune.com/punews/loca ... 04915.html