The start of LGBTQ Pride Month in the U.S. is supposed to be a happy one for 29-year-old Udoka Nweke, a gay man who fled Nigeria, a country that still criminalizes LGBTQ people like him. He knows this danger firsthand—he fled his home to seek asylum in the U.S. after anti-LGBTQ violence nearly robbed him of his life:
After he was attacked by an anti-gay mob, Nweke fled his native country and made an arduous, traumatic trek through South and Central America before reaching the United States via the San Ysidro port of entry, where he surrendered himself.
Asylum-seekers flee to our country for safety and freedom from persecution. Instead, Nweke has remained locked up in California’s Adelanto Detention Facility—a privately-run prison notorious for poor conditions—since asking for asylum back December 2016, with no end in sight:
“Seeing him there in the orange jumpsuit,” [Black LGBTQ Migrant Project national organizer Ola] Osaze told the Los Angeles Blade by phone on May 17, “was a staggering reality for me.” He explained Nweke has been detained for fifteen months as a result of actions that he took only in order to survive.
Nweke is worried about persecution if he’s deported back to Nigeria, and has been suffering from severe mental health issues due to his detention, even attempting suicide after being twice denied bond and having his initial asylum request rejected. “All he’s seen of the United States is a jail cell, a detention facility,” Osaze said.
LGBTQ people face additional dangers in detention, including sexual, physical and emotional abuse. “Before being deported, immigrants would likely spend time in a DHS detention facility. The horrific abuse that LGBTQ immigrants face in detention facilities is well-documented”:
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, nonheterosexual people are more than twice as likely as the general population to be sexually assaulted while in confinement. From 2009 to 2013, 1 in 5 substantiated allegations of sexual assault in ICE detention facilities had a transgender victim. In addition to sexual assault, LGBTQ people in detention face verbal and physical abuse; prolonged solitary confinement; and the withholding of critical health care needs, such as hormone therapy or HIV medication.
Just days ago, Roxsana Hernández, a 33-year-old transgender woman originally from Honduras, became the six person to die while in ICE custody. Like Nweke, she was fleeing LGBTQ violence, after she was sexually assaulted by gang members. The conditions leading to her death continue to remain unclear, but what is clear is that she fled here for safety, and now she is dead:
In Adelanto, after Nweke’s plea for asylum was denied, he attempted suicide. Psychologists diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia and depression. And now activists, including Ola Osaze, national organizer of the Black LGBTQ Migrant Project (BLMP) have petitioned for Nweke’s release on parole so he can access lifesaving medical treatments. Otherwise, they fear Nweke’s condition will worsen.
According to Rewire, Nweke’s initial asylum petition was rejected because “the judge stated that he did not find Nweke to be credible because there were inconsistencies in the way he answered questions.” But according to advocate Monica Glicken, “this happens all the time, especially when a person has been unrepresented for a long time”:
“Udoka went to several hearings by himself and only had a pro bono attorney for the last couple of hearings. For someone like Udoka, who has had traumatic events happen in his life and suffers from a severe mental illness, it is difficult to recall and communicate those traumatic events clearly. This can lead to responses that are read as inconsistent by the judge.”
Advocates are eager to help him set up a new life here and get him access to mental health services fitting his needs, and hope that LGBTQ Pride Month can help give his case the attention it deserves. “When a man tries to hang himself after his asylum is denied,” Glicken continued, “I think that shows the level of fear he has about returning to his home country.” Sign the petition in his support here.