A gay refugee is suing the Trump administration for sending him to Guatemala

Photo by: Vardion

A gay refugee from El Salvador who said he fled gang violence and spent a year traveling to get to the U.S. before being promptly sent to Guatemala is suing the Trump administration.

Several people who tried to apply for asylum in the U.S. were sent to Guatemala instead and are saying they weren’t even informed of their rights, according to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and the National Immigrant Justice Center.

Related: Dozens of LGBTQ asylum seekers in the migrant caravan have arrived at the border

“U.T,” 23, said in the complaint that a member of the MS-13 in El Salvador attempted to have sex with him and threatened him when he refused. He came out to his family, who disowned him; his mother said that she would rather have a dead son than a gay son.

He said that he traveled in El Salvador looking for a place where he could be himself, but he didn’t find it. He feared he would be killed there, so he left the country and spent a year getting to the U.S.-Mexico border.

But last year, Donald Trump signed an agreement with Guatemala to take in asylum-seekers. The “safe third country” program is an attempt to reduce the number of Central American refugees in the U.S. by, ironically, sending them to a country where 200,000 of its own citizens fled to the U.S. last year.

Guatemala is especially dangerous for LGBTQ people. U.T., using the name “Pablo” when talking to Buzzfeed News, said that he traveled through Guatemala on his way to the U.S. but was harassed along the way.

“They called us gay and a number of other words,” he said. “They told us we ruined the ambiance just for being there.”

He tried to explain why he would still be in danger in Guatemala during a short interview with an immigration official in the U.S., but he was still sent away….

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