INFO:

Juan Carlos Herrera-Zapata, a 26-year-old Honduran immigrant, knew he was gay from the time he was a little boy. Shunned by family members, forced out of school altogether by bullies, and targeted by police, Juan Carlos moved from city to city. In February 2018 he finally fled Honduras for the United States, where he hoped to live freely and without fear of being physically assaulted for being gay. Instead, he was taken to Folkston ICE Processing Center, a prison for immigrants in Georgia – where life became bleaker and more difficult than it ever was in Honduras. It wasn’t until lawyers with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative offered to represent him pro bono that freedom became a reality. After 11 months in detention, Juan Carlos was granted asylum, becoming one of the fortunate few freed from a broken system. Read more about SPLC’s Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative (SIFI) here: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?v=rqFz2l-b-VAu0026event=video_descriptionu0026redir_token=NAoUd3n6xvrqbSt8yznQv4xogzF8MTU1OTY3MDQxMkAxNTU5NTg0MDEyu0026q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.splcenter.org%2Four-issues%2Fimmigrant-justice%2Fsoutheast-immigrant-freedom-initiative-0