Eight years after original hearing, Jones Day secures asylum on remand for Guatemalan gay man

Client(s) C.C.

In December 2006, at just 17 years old, C.C. fled to the United States after three armed men threatened, kidnapped, beat, raped, and nearly killed him simply because he is gay. Homophobia is rampant in C.C.’s home country of Guatemala, where state and non-state actors engage in the “social cleansing” of “undesirables” such as the gay community.

Jones Day began representing C.C. in September 2007 after meeting him at the Whitman-Walker Clinic in Washington, D.C. At the original June 2008 merits hearing, the Immigration Court declined to grant asylum. From 2008 to 2016, the case was appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals, remanded back to the Immigration Court, transferred to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and returned again to the Immigration Court. After nearly a decade of litigation, Jones Day secured an asylum victory for C.C. on April 25, 2016. The Court specifically cited Jones Day’s diligence in developing a strong corroborating record when announcing its decision to grant asylum.

C.C. now looks forward to building a family with his partner and becoming a U.S. citizen.