SAN ANTONIO – Although still fearful of being identified, a Honduran mother and human rights activist said she feels happier and less nervous than she has been since leaving her home country in 2012.
“I feel more at peace now that I don’t have the deportation order,” she said.
Lance Curtright, her immigration attorney, said, “It could be reinstated but she could also be granted asylum.”
He said that’s why the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sent her case back to immigration court.
Curtright said the appeals court decision found her case had not been reviewed correctly. He said she didn’t have “a general fear” of the violent gangs that control much of Honduras.
“She’s a woman who was an activist who stood up for her beliefs,” Curtright said. “She started a parents group. She was politically active.”
He said it’s the first time a federal court had recognized that as being significant.
Curtright said traditionally, asylum cases are based on claims of government persecution, but in his client’s case by recognizing that gangs are running much of Honduras, the appeals court acknowledged that also could be a situation that would merit asylum.
He said, “These gangs are targeting female human rights activists because they don’t want people standing up to them.”