Mexican transgender asylum seeker allowed to stay in U.S.

Dan82 · Nov 9, 2010

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_16560073

When Alexandra Reyes' father caught her wearing her sister's shoes and clothes, he tied her up and beat her with spiked pieces of a tree.

"It was so horrible, I would scream," Reyes said in Spanish. "He told me he had a son, not a daughter, and he did not accept me."

Reyes, 32, was born a boy named Carlos but began living life as a girl at age 8, infuriating her traditional Mayan family in Cenotillo, Mexico. One night, an aunt walked into Reyes' bedroom and tried to kill her with a machete because she didn't want Reyes in the family.

The Mexican police wouldn't arrest Reyes' abusers. So 10 years ago, she paid a smuggler to get her across the border. She walked four days and four nights through the desert into the U.S. and made it to Colorado, where a friend told her she would be safe.

Now, she gets to stay here.

Last week, an immigration judge granted Reyes a form of asylum that allows her to stay in the U.S. based on the persecution she suffered as a transgender woman in Mexico.

The Board of Immigration Appeals withheld her removal from the U.S. after determining the Mexican government would not protect her from abuse if she was deported.

Read more: Mexican transgender asylum seeker allowed to stay in U.S. - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_16560073#ixzz14qqHb5nC
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Charme · Nov 9, 2010

her traditional Mayan family
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Mayan should be replaced with Mexican or traditional with contemporary to make the statement true.

Mexican transgender asylum seeker allowed to stay in U.S.

Dan82
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Mexican transgender asylum seeker allowed to stay in U.S.

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