The Trump administration has acknowledged that it “inadvertently” deported a transgender woman to Mexico, despite a federal court order explicitly blocking her removal due to the risk she could be tortured or killed there.
In a filing lodged last week, officials confirmed that Britania Uriostegui Rios was sent to Mexico in violation of a 14 March ruling that prohibited her deportation to the country.
US authorities are now attempting to bring Rios back, at which point she will be taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody until a new country for potential removal is identified. Her legal team is suing to ensure she is released from detention upon her return.
Rios, who arrived in the US in 2003, is a legal permanent resident. She has a significant criminal record, and her immigration status was upgraded to long-term permanent residency in 2011. An immigration judge ordered her removal in March after she was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon in Las Vegas. However, the court barred her deportation to Mexico because of the documented dangers she would face there as a trans woman.
Research from the Trans Murder Monitoring Project, along with findings from the Transgender Law Centre and Cornell University Law School LGBT Clinic, consistently ranks Mexico among the world’s most dangerous countries for transgender people. Trans women in particular face rampant discrimination, violence, rape, torture and murder.
Despite the court order, Rios was transferred last week from Winn Correctional Centre in Winnfield, Louisiana, to Harlingen, Texas, without her lawyer being informed. She was subsequently removed to Mexico with no money, no mental-health medication, no HIV-prevention medication, no gender-affirming hormones and no phone.
According to court documents, “Since Britania’s arrival in Mexico, she has managed to make only a few phone calls to her counsel in the United States, as she tries to piece together how to safely return and not die in the process.”
Her legal team wrote that they hold “grave concerns for [her] life and safety, as she navigates her way back to the United States.”
In an email submitted as evidence, Assistant US Attorney Shannon Smitherman informed lawyer Bridget Pranzatelli: “ICE confirmed that your client was removed to Mexico inadvertently.” In another message, Smitherman added that ICE was prepared to “remedy the inadvertent removal” by allowing Rios to re-enter the US voluntarily — provided she could make it to the border.
While in Mexico, Rios has been staying with relatives, though she remains unsafe there. In a court filing, lawyer Talia Lepson wrote that Rios had been forced into hiding and compelled to use her deadname, as her family does not accept her identity as a trans woman.
“Britania expressed that she does not feel safe in her family’s home and fears they will discover her trans identity and harm her or kick her out of their house,” Lepson wrote. She added that even she, as Rios’ advocate, had been forced to conceal Rios’ identity, calling the circumstance “demoralising”.
Pranzatelli told CNN that Rios has endured “extreme trauma”, including being sexually trafficked by cartels from as young as 12 years old. “There are many in Mexico who want to hurt her,” she said, noting that this was why a judge found it “more likely than not” that Rios would be tortured or killed if returned.
