Lesbian avoids deportation to Jamaica

A Jamaican lesbian was spared deportation to her native country after a judge found that she might be tortured there because of her sexual orientation.
In an extremely rare move, a Jamaican lesbian living in Sunrise has avoided deportation -- for now -- after an immigration judge allowed the 29-year-old to stay in the United States because her sexual orientation could cause her to be tortured in her home country.

''The general atmosphere in Jamaica is a feeling of no tolerance towards homosexuals in general, and as such, . . . the respondent's life is definitely at risk,'' Immigration Judge Irma Lopez-Defillo said, according to court documents.

Lopez-Defillo initially ordered that the woman be deported because of a pair of drug convictions. In the same ruling, the judge deferred the order based on the climate of intolerance in Jamaica. Nichole checked in with immigration authorities on Thursday regarding her order of supervision. She is due to report back in three months.

The woman was released from a detention center in Puerto Rico in June and is staying with her parents in Sunrise. Nichole asked that her first and last names not be used in order to spare her parents from embarrassment. Nichole is her middle name.

The judge's decision comes as the issue of homophobic violence in Jamaica has reemerged as a pressing concern among rights groups. In January, a mob broke into a house in a centrally located town and slashed the occupants, sending two to the hospital, Human Rights Watch reported. One was severely injured and the other is missing and feared dead. The men were suspected of being gay.

The U.S. Department of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review doesn't document cases based on sexual orientation. But immigration attorneys say they've handled similar cases for clients from Jamaica, Guyana, Mexico and Honduras.

Court decisions on cases where immigrants cite torture are extremely rare.

According to the EOIR, immigration courts handled 28,130 cases in fiscal year 2007 in which undocumented immigrants claimed under the U.N. Convention Against Torture (CAT) that they ''more likely than not'' will be tortured if removed from the United States. Of those cases, only 449 were actually granted, meaning the immigrant was spared deportation. A mere 92 cases -- less than one percent -- were granted a deferred removal.

`PHENOMENAL WIN'

These figures have remained consistent since at least 2002.

''It's a phenomenal win,'' said Jonathan Eoloff, an attorney with the National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago. ``. . . A deferral of removal under CAT is rare.''

The Department of Homeland Security still has the authority to remove Nichole to a country other than Jamaica, leaving her in limbo. Her attorney plans to file documents so Nichole can apply for legal residency.

Nichole grew up in Ocho Rios, a coastal town and tourist destination in northern Jamaica, and moved to the United States at the age of 10 with her parents. She said she has been attracted to women for as long as she can recall.

`LIVE UNDER COVER'

Life as a Jamaican lesbian hasn't been easy.

Being gay ''is the worst thing you can be stricken with [in Jamaica],'' Nichole recently quipped in her attorney's West Miami-Dade office. ``You basically have to live under cover.''

When she was a teenager and her sexuality became apparent, her parents, Seventh-day Adventists, tried to stage an intervention.

Her parents sent her back to Jamaica when she was 14 -- an effort that aimed to instill strong Christian values in her so she would gravitate toward men.

Nichole's stay lasted two months.

While enrolled in an arts program, Nichole spent what an aunt considered to be an unusual amount of time with a girl.

The aunt slapped her.

''That's when my life changed,'' Nichole said, smiling at the obvious. ``It was basically broadcasted -- my sexuality.''

Word of Nichole's homosexuality spread among family members on the island and in the States. The aunt couldn't ''deal with the situation,'' the judge noted in court records.

`WASN'T ANY USE'

Nichole's parents came to Jamaica to fetch her. Nichole told them she was a lesbian.

''There wasn't any use in lying anymore,'' Nichole said. ``Everything in darkness comes to light some day.''

Through it all, Nichole said her parents loved her but couldn't accept her sexuality. This led Nichole to seek support from others. When she was in a relationship, she lived with the girlfriend. When she wasn't, she lived with an aunt.

Nichole lived in the South and then she settled in Broward at age 25. With her short haircuts and oversize clothes, she sometimes met hostility.

A few years ago, while waiting in line outside a Broward club popular among Jamaicans, her brother overheard somebody comment on her looks.

' `Oh you know, she needs to make up her mind if she's a dude or a girl, because she's -- you know, she's a woman. But if she acts like a dude, then, you know, we can bust her a--.' '' Nichole's brother told the immigration court.

`NOT A GOOD MOVE'

In sworn testimony, the 33-year-old brother also talked about what would happen if she was sent back to Jamaica.

''Nobody would accept her,'' said her brother, also recalling on the stand how he once witnessed in Jamaica two men believed to be gay chased up a tree and then pelted with stones. ``I don't know where [she] would live or what she would do. It's not a good move for her to go back to Jamaica. I'm strongly against that move.''

In records, Lopez-Defillo notes that Nichole has had a ''very difficult life,'' seeming to stem from her sexual orientation and the rejection she encountered from her family.

This ''difficult life'' came to a head in 2006.

That year, she was convicted on a cocaine-delivery charge after pleading no contest, records show. Not much later, she was convicted in a Broward Court on charges of possessing cocaine, alprazolam (Xanax), cannabis, and drug paraphernalia.

''She took the plea out of convenience and was unaware of the consequences,'' said her attorney, Christina Marquez. ``There wasn't any proof that she was selling drugs.''

The court sentenced Nichole to a Florida detention center for one year and one day. Immigration authorities sent her to a West Palm Beach detention center. Later, she was transferred to a facility in San Juan.

During the proceedings in Puerto Rico, Homeland Security filed an appeal against the judge's decision but the motion was dismissed.

NEW LIFE

In June, Nichole was released after two-plus years of incarceration.

These days, the Jamaican native is trying to adjust to her new life. Stripped of her residency status, she can't work and spends time with her parents in their Sunrise home. She watches TV crime shows. She's making compromises.

''When I was younger, I was determined to be myself to the fullest extent,'' Nichole said. ``Being older, I've learned how to live with my parents and respect them.''

She has ditched the baggy attire and wears diamond earrings. She grew her hair, which now reaches her shoulders.

She's also holding off before dating again. In the meantime, she writes poems and stores them in a diary.

Scared to go back to my origin,

fearing the ultimate sentence, an

early grave.

. . .

Yet my freedom of expression poses

as lethal.

Give me liberty or give me death.

Though I'm not ready to die for

being me yet.