Lambda Legal Urges Federal Court to Grant Asylum to Transgender Woman Living With HIV/AIDS


"Karolina Lopez Berera suffered horrific abuse at the hands of her family and police because of her transgender identity. Her forced removal, in light of rampant HIV persecution, amounts to nothing less than an indirect death sentence."

Date: 11/30/2011

http://www.lambdalegal.org/news/ca_20111130_lambda-legal-urges-federal-court-to-grant-asylum

(Los Angeles, CA, November 29, 2011) – Today, Lambda Legal and a group of organizations that advocate for the rights of people living with HIV, including HIV-affected immigrants, filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Lopez Berera v. Holder, urging the Court to grant asylum to a transgender Mexican woman living with HIV/AIDS.

"Growing up in Mexico, Karolina Lopez Berera suffered horrific abuse at the hands of her family and police because of her transgender identity," said Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, Lambda Legal Staff Attorney. "She fled to the United States to escape that abuse, and immigration officials concede that she was persecuted.