U.S. Court: Mexico is Increasingly Accepting of LGBT Community Joe Palazzolo - WSJ.com
go to original October 4, 2012

Being gay isn’t a basis for Mexicans to seek asylum in the U.S., a federal appeals court ruled.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit held Wednesday that the U.S. could deport Efren Neri-Garcia, who had argued that he would face persecution if forced to return to his native Mexico because he is gay.

Mr. Neri-Garcia might have been able to make that case in 1994, when he left Mexico. But the appeals court said circumstances had changed in Mexico since then, pointing to two human rights reports by the State Department from 2009 and 2010. The reports note, among other things, that Mexico City has legalized gay marriage and adoption by gay couples, and that the Mexican Supreme Court has required all Mexican states to recognize gay marriages performed in states where it is legal.

Mr. Neri-Garcia directed the immigration courts to news reports about deadly attacks on LBGT activists in Mexico. (There have been several in recent years.) But the immigration courts determined — and the 10th Circuit agreed — that the government of Mexico had taken and was continuing to take significant steps to prevent violence and discrimination against gay men.

The Department of Homeland Security, represented by the Justice Department, “established…a fundamental change in circumstances in Mexico such that Neri-Garcia’s life or freedom would not now be threatened as a result of his sexual orientation,” the 11th Circuit said.

A lawyer for Mr. Neri-Garcia didn’t immediately respond to a call for comment.

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