Immigration judge grants asylum to Honduran teen-activist who fled gang violence at 13

March 01--She was robbed at gunpoint in her native Honduras, fled the country by herself at 13 to find her mother in the United States and spent several years in legal limbo, but on Wednesday, Maryori Urbina-Contreras seemed to finally find an oasis in a rough journey.

A Chicago immigration judge early Wednesday evening granted the 17-year-old's bid for asylum -- an against-the-odds plea -- setting the girl on a path to becoming a U.S. citizen.

After hours of testimony about how the girl was a victim of and witness to violent gang holdups in the Central American country, Immigration Judge Jennie Giambastiani took 15 minutes to deliberate before explaining that the teen should remain in the United States.

"This is a woman who has a bright future and has demonstrated she is really attached to this country," Giambastiani said. She then granted Urbina-Contreras asylum.

A teary-eyed Urbina-Contreras sat in the Loop courtroom and thanked the judge while her mother, Tania Contreras, stood up and lifted her arms into the air. The teen can apply for a green card within a year, paving the way for U.S. citizenship.

Outside of immigration court, Urbina-Contreras wrapped an American flag around her while surrounded by her family.

"This is the flag that protects me," she said in Spanish. "This is my home now."

Her victory was anything but certain -- 78 percent of asylum cases from Honduras were denied nationwide from fiscal years 2012 to 2017, according to an analysis from Syracuse University. To be granted asylum, a person must establish past persecution or a fear of future persecution because of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion.

Urbina-Contreras first bid for asylum through the office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was denied in 2015.

Still, Giambastiani determined Urbina-Contreras was part of a particular social group in Honduras -- one of young, poor females without protection from family -- who could be exposed to more violence, and she ruled that it wasn't reasonable to believe the teen would be able to move to a safer part of Honduras if she returned.

Urbina-Contreras was among thousands of unaccompanied children who flooded across the southwestern border of the United States, causing a humanitarian crisis in 2014. In the four years she's been in the United States, Urbina-Contreras has traveled to Capitol Hill, granted television news interviews, making the case for her and others fleeing violence to stay in this country.

Her journey to be reunited with her mother, who came to the U.S. when Urbina-Contreras was a baby, began when the girl was just 13 -- on bus rides, by walking and taking an airboat from her Central American country to the Texas border.

Her attorney, Christopher Helt, argued that Urbina-Contreras, as a witness and victim of violent robberies at the hands of Honduran gang members, could face further persecution if she was forced to return to the country -- the fact that she's young, poor and female, practically guarantees it, he said.

During hours of testimony, the judge and a Department of Homeland Security attorney questioned whether she could have stayed with her father in Honduras -- something Urbina-Contreras said wasn't an option -- and asked her to recount the crimes she faced.

Urbina-Contreras testified that at 13 she was already taking taxis to school because buses in her neighborhood were unsafe, saying robbers had taken her identification card and she feared the gang responsible knew who she was and where she lived.

"I felt in danger. I knew I was exposed to danger and I knew that this person could kill me and was capable of doing that," Urbina-Contreras said in Spanish.

But after Wednesday's ruling, which the government declined to appeal, Urbina-Contreras will return with her mother and two U.S.-born sisters to the family's residence in suburban Waukegan. She is a junior at Waukegan High School and plans to one day study nursing. The judge told Urbina-Contreras she was a "heck of a determined young lady" and and that she would like to see her become a citizen someday.

"I hope you never forget this day," Giambastiani said.

"Never," Urbina-Contreras said.

emalagon@chicagotribune.com

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