Open County
Queens Offers A Safe Haven For Immigrants
By Juliet Werner

Carlos left Colombia to seek asylum in Queens.

If this year is anything like last year, Carlos will watch the Queens Pride Parade from the window of his Jackson Heights apartment.

Carlos, 24, came to this country four years ago when life as a gay man in Colombia became unbearable.

"I think I always knew, but I wanted to change," he said. "I was always thinking, 'I can change.' I wanted to be the person like my parents or my family wanted me to be."

The discrimination he faced both at home and at school was manageable. But when a family friend started harassing him - calling the house at all hours of the night to demand sex - Carlos sought refuge abroad. He had family in Queens.

"When I got here it was hard because it was kind of like living in Colombia again with my uncles and cousins," he said. "I tried to hide. It was kind of like living a double life."

Still, the physical and emotional abuse he had faced in Bogota seemed a million miles away.

"For you it used to be normal, but then when you're here, you're like, 'Oh my god! That's not right - it's wrong,'" he said. "You realize you don't deserve it."

On the advice of a friend, Carlos applied for asylum in January 2005, but his case was denied. Asylum enables foreign nationals to remain lawfully in the United States indefinitely and, after one year, apply for legal residence. In general, an asylum application must be filed within one year of the applicant's arrival in the states.

In 1994 former Attorney General Janet Reno decided that a Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) case, Matter of Toboso-Alfonso, would become precedent. As a result, persecution based on sexual orientation is enough to apply for asylum.

Victoria Neilson works as the legal director of Immigration Equality, a national organization that helps immigrants who were persecuted in their home country based on sexual orientation, transgender identity or HIV-status, with their asylum applications.

"Most of our clients find us through our Web site," Neilson said. "We get tens of thousands of independent hits every month."

Carlos found Immigration Equality online and pretty soon he had an attorney.

"I didn't know the steps," Carlos confessed. "They told me what I was missing. So they helped me out with building my case."

In order to have a case, one must provide an Immigration Form I-589, a personal statement, corroborating documents and proof that conditions in country of origin violated human rights.

According to Neilson, the majority of immigrants currently obtaining asylum on the grounds of their sexual orientation are West Indian. However, a few years ago, most were hailing from Venezuela and other Latin American countries.

Nearly 80 percent of Immigration Equality's clients are gay men.

"It's more difficult for women to get to the United States," Neilson explained. "Also the type of harm that women experience in their countries fits less neatly into asylum standards. [With men] it's more likely they have been in a gay bar where they're physically harmed. Lesbians tend to have more discrete relationships and some of the harm they face is fear of a forced arranged marriage or rape."

Carlos was granted asylum in April 2007. He now lives in an apartment with a friend who had fled similar circumstances in Colombia.

"Since I'm living on my own just here by myself I feel more comfortable. I feel so much more confident. It's very, very different," he said, adding, "It's not just getting here and that's it. You have to keep fighting and trying to become better and better."

Carlos said he's looking forward to studying interior design at Parsons in the fall and has the following advice for others who have escaped persecution.

"Stay focused because probably if you don't focus on what your goals are maybe you can get lost," he said. "When you believe in something it comes true. [A lot of people focus on] just getting money, money, money, but they forget about getting a better immigration status…You can improve your life even more." .