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A12 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 7 March 2020
Salvadorans who fled to U.S. to escape violence returned to it

By MARCOS ALEMAN and Salvador.
CLAUDIA TORRENS The policemen are wait-
Associated Press ing for a judge's decision
SAN SALVADOR, El Salva- on whether to prosecute
dor (AP) — them.
Several years ago, Camila El Salvador's murder rate
Díaz left her native El Salva- has declined sharply since
dor and went to the United 2015, when more than
States, looking for a place 6,000 people were killed.
where she would be safer But the country continues
as a transgender woman. to have one of the world's
But she failed to find a sym- highest homicide rates, in
pathetic ear. Deported large part due to gang vio-
back to San Salvador, the lence.
nation's capital, she was Meanwhile, the number of
killed just over a year later. Salvadorans seeking asy-
Díaz, 30, was one of 138 Sal- lum in the United States
vadorans deported from grew tenfold between
the United States who have 2012 and 2017. Many cited
been killed upon returning gang threats in their asylum
to their country since 2013, claims, but only about 18%
according to a report by saw their asylum requests
Human Rights Watch. approved.
As the administration of U.S. Human Rights Watch said
President Donald Trump the real number of people
steps up efforts to block killed after being deported
asylum, the report reflect may be much higher than
a bleak picture created in 138.
part by gang violence in Salvadoran Foreign Minister
El Salvador and struggling Alexandra Hill Tinoco told
law enforcement agencies reporters that some of the
there, some experts say. returning Salvadorans who
"El Salvador is a small coun- In this Feb. 12, 2020 photo, transgender woman Leticia shows a photograph of Camila Díaz, an- had been killed were gang
try, a poor country, a very other transgender woman she met while migrating to the U.S. members themselves. But
violent country and so the Associated Press she also acknowledged
police are stretched," said that deportees face a so-
Meg Galas, Country Di- spokesperson who de- once again left the coun- fore she was deported. cial stigma in their home
rector of Northern Central clined to be named in line try. Leticia was held there, too, country.
America for the Interna- with agency protocols. This time, at a migrant shel- for nine months, as she ap- The deaths reported in the
tional Rescue Committee, Asylum has always been a ter in the southern Mexico pealed, until she, too, was Human Rights Watch report
a humanitarian aid organi- long shot for migrants, with city of Tapachula, she met deported in May 2018. occurred during both the
zation. many claims denied. It has Leticia, a fellow Salvadoran "Camila never put up with administrations of Trump
"When people are deport- become even harder in transgender woman. harassment. Even though and Barack Obama.
ed they are deported right the Trump administration, Leticia, who asked that her she told them over and Trump has made limiting im-
back into the violence and which has focused on mak- real name not be used for over again that our lives migration a centerpiece of
the fear that they left," she ing asylum increasingly dif- fear of persecution, told were in danger, they de- his policies, including mak-
said. ficult to obtain. The Justice her story to The Associated ported her first," Leticia ing Central American asy-
International law does not Department has said that Press. said. "I kept fighting, but in lum seekers wait in Mexico
allow countries to send the goal is to prevent im- Leticia and Díaz lived in the end they deported me. while their cases are being
refugees back to a place migrants from overwhelm- Mexico for a year and a Now she is dead." considered.
where they fear persecu- ing the nation's immigration half. They got asylum pa- Díaz disappeared the Human Rights Watch has
tion. Some activists claim system and endangering pers in Tapachula, but they night of Jan. 30, 2019 as called on the U.S. govern-
that, under Trump, the national security. felt harassed in southern she worked the streets of ment to drop the "remain
U.S. is not following its own More than 144,000 Salva- Mexico, so they decided to San Salvador and she was in Mexico" policy, and
procedures of giving asy- dorans were deported to travel to Mexico City, in the found the next day, badly drop restrictions that make
lum seekers a chance to their home country from fis- center of the country. beaten but still alive. it harder to seek asylum
explain their complicated cal year 2013 to fiscal year "Because we were trans, Emergency personnel took because of gang threats
situations and is, instead, 2019, according to ICE and the way we dressed, her to the Rosales hospital, or gender violence. The
blocking their right to be data. they wouldn't give us jobs. where she died on Feb. 3. Department of Homeland
heard. Díaz left El Salvador in 2014 We were discriminated Mónica Linares, an activist Security, however, says it is
The U.S. Immigration and after suffering a beating against all the time," Leticia with the rights group Arcoir- trying to make the asylum
Customs Enforcement that left her with a dislo- recalled. "We resorted to is Trans (Rainbow Trans) said process more efficient and
agency, or ICE, said Friday cated jaw; she had filed a prostitution in order to sur- the group had demanded eliminate fraudulent claims.
that migrants placed in criminal complaint against vive." authorities investigate her Despite the hardening of
removal proceedings re- her attacker, with no result. Desperate, they traveled to killing. What followed was U.S. policies, Leticia, Díaz's
ceive all appropriate legal After a while in Mexico, the U.S. border, where they the arrest of three police- friend, plans to try to return
process before the federal Díaz returned to El Salva- turned themselves in to U.S. men who, according to in- to the United States this
immigration courts. The dor, where she found work immigration authorities. vestigations, had stopped month.
agency only deports peo- in a bar in a tough neigh- Díaz was held for a couple Díaz in the street, and later "I want to undertake the
ple in accordance with borhood in San Salvador. of months at an immigra- threw her from a moving journey again, to see what
federal laws as passed by But gang death threats fol- tion detention center in police vehicle on a high- fate holds for me," she
Congress, said an agency lowed her, and in 2016 she San Diego, California be- way on the east side of San said.q