Gay Jamaican Immigrant Gains Reprieve

According to a post on seattletimes.

A gay Jamaican man — one of the longest-held detainees at the Northwest Detention Center — has won a second chance to remain in the United States after a federal appeals court in a ruling this week pointed to a “pattern and practice of persecution” of gays in his Caribbean homeland.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered an immigration judge to reconsider the case of Damion Bromfield, who is seeking something akin to political asylum 15 years after he first came to the U.S. as a legal immigrant — and more than a decade after he came out as gay.

The 30-year-old, who grew up in the Portland area, says he’s convinced he would be beaten and killed if ordered back to Jamaica.

The ruling could have implications for other gays caught up in the U.S. immigration system.

“This ruling sets an important precedent for individuals who fear they will be persecuted because of their sexual identity in their home countries,” said Matt Adams, legal director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, which represented Bromfield before the federal appeals court.

“The court has said it’s not just this case, that right now in Jamaica there is this pattern and practice of persecution of gays.”