The First Circuit has upheld the denial of a motion to reopen based on changed country conditions in Uganda for an LGBT asylum seeker, finding that the conditions have not materially changed, but have instead, been terrible for the LGBT community since before the applicant’s 2014 removal order.
“Put bluntly, the situation is dreadful — but it has been dreadful throughout the relevant period. The petitioner's submissions fail to show that the level of hostility, persecution, or other mistreatment intensified between May of 2014 (when the merits hearing concluded) and June of 2018 (when the petitioner's second motion to reopen was filed).”
“Let us be perfectly clear. We have no illusions about what is happening in Uganda with respect to LGBT individuals. We regard the views of the Ugandan government toward members of the LGBT community as benighted, and we know that the petitioner's life in her homeland may prove trying. But the conditions that confront LGBT individuals in Uganda, though disturbing, are not new. Those conditions have persisted for decades, and they have not materially changed in the relatively brief interval between the conclusion of the petitioner's 2014 merits hearing and the filing of her 2018 motion to reopen.”
The court did suggest that the Executive Branch has the authority to grant the applicant parole into the United States., given the humanitarian factors in the case.
The full text of Nantume v. Barr can be found here: