Firm Achieves Relief for LGBTQ+ Peruvian Woman Facing Deportation

December 2024 - On a pro bono basis, Hughes Hubbard recently obtained withholding of removal relief for a transgender woman born in Peru who is facing proceedings for deportation from the United States.

Suffering significant violence as a transgender woman in Peru, she was slashed and raped in separate incidents, and was repeatedly assaulted and harassed as a result of her gender identity, including physical and emotional abuse from certain family members. Peru’s police did not assist her, as law enforcement was often complacent in incidents of violence against the LGBTQ+ population.

She fled Peru and entered the U.S. in 2002. She filed an asylum application in 2014 that included no explanation as to why she had not sought asylum within the one-year deadline for doing so, based on poor advice from an attorney that filing the application would allow her to obtain a work authorization. While true that the application allowed her to apply for a work authorization, it also landed her in removal proceedings after she attended her asylum interview alone, and the asylum officer found that she had not complied with the one-year filing deadline.

After being engaged in 2017, the Hughes Hubbard team conducted a fact investigation, and then filed briefing and evidence in support of her application. Just prior to her December 2024 merits hearing, the government offered, and she accepted, withholding of removal, a favorable resolution preventing deportation.

The firm’s pro bono client was represented by Greg Farrell and Kiran Rosenkilde, with supervision from Meaghan Gragg. Administrative assistant Michelle Arce, paralegals Elena Soler and Rachel Marks, and pro bono coordinator Ana Mello assisted with translation and fact-gathering work.