A gay man from Guatemala who has asked for asylum in the U.S. runs a project that helps LGBTQ asylum seekers in a Mexican border city.
Estuardo Cifuentes arrived in Matamoros, which is across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas, at the end of July 2019 and asked for asylum in the U.S.
based on the persecution he said he suffered in Guatemala because of his sexual orientation. Cifuentes on Sept. 24 during a Zoom interview told the Washington Blade he spent a few days in U.S.
Customs and Border Protection custody before he was sent back to Matamoros under the Trump administration’s “return to Mexico” policy that forces asylum seekers to await the outcome of their cases in Mexico. “I went back to Matamoros without knowing anything, without