Natasha headed north from Honduras with a dream, one that she’s shared with millions of American immigrants for the past four centuries. As a young trans woman, she’d been disowned by her family and made an outcast in her community. She yearned to start a happier new life in America, the land of acceptance and opportunity.
After a grueling 40-day, 2,000-mile journey, Natasha finally arrived at the Mexico-Texas border at Brownsville last September, expecting to claim asylum and be allowed into the United States to await her hearing. Instead, she was brusquely turned away by immigration officials and left to fend for herself in Mexico.
“They didn’t explain anything,” says the 23-year-old in a video by RAICES (Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services), a South Texas nonprofit aiding immigrants like Natasha. “They didn’t ask me anything or tell me to sign anything or say why they were sending me here. But before I knew it, here I was.”
Read the full article here.
