In re Vicky

Vicky is a young transgender woman from Mexico. Throughout her childhood, Vicky’s family and the people in her small town attacked her for her femininity. When she was 16, Vicky came home from school to find that her parents had abandoned her. She fled to the United States in 1994. In 1997, she began living as a woman. In 2003, she was detained by the Phoenix police and deported to Mexico. Vicky sought out her family, hoping for reconciliation, but instead her brothers beat her. Vicky remained in Mexico for eight months, but she was often beaten, ridiculed, and threatened, and a fruit stand she had opened was destroyed. She returned to the United States and applied for asylum, with the help of NCLR and pro bono attorneys at the law firm of Hanson Bridgett LLP. As of 2009, Vicky has been waiting for her asylum decision for over three years.