Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals Upholds Gay Man's Deportation to Mexico Kenneth Ofgang - Metropolitan News-Enterprise
go to original November 21, 2015

A gay man who claims to have been physically abused in Mexico as a child because of his sexual orientation, but did not seek the protection of authorities there, is not entitled to asylum, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week.

In a 2-1 decision, the panel said Carlos Bringas-Rodriguez was not entitled to a presumption that he would be persecuted in the future, because he failed to demonstrate that he was abused because he was gay, or that the Mexican government was unable or unwilling to stop the abuse.

The government sought to deport Bringas-Rodriguez, an undocumented immigrant, after he was convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a minor in Colorado in 2010. He explained that he was drinking in his own home when a friend brought the minor with him. He attempted suicide while serving 90 days in jail.

Bringas-Rodriguez petitioned for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture. He testified that as a 6-year-old, he began to realize he was attracted to men, and has identified as gay since he was 10.

As a result, he said, he was beaten by his father and sexually abused by an uncle, cousins, and a neighbor. His abusers called him homophobic names and laughed about it, he said.

He never reported the abuse to police, he said, because such a complaint would have been treated as frivolous, and he did not tell his family, because he was afraid his abusers would harm the family members he was closest to, his mother and grandmother.

He came to the United States “to escape” the abuse in 2004, at age 14.

Read the rest at Metropolitan News-Enterprise

Related: Mexican Asylum-Seeker with HIV Turned Down (Courthouse News)

Related: Millions of Americans Still Fear Their Parents Will be Deported, One Year After DAPA (HuffPost Latino Voices)

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