Estrella Santos-Zacaria, a transgender immigrant, won a Supreme Court ruling which allowed her to challenge her deportation status. The decision, which was made in May, also marked a big step in the Court’s recognition of transgender people.
Santos-Zacaria, who is a transgender woman of Indigenous heritage, has been attempting to immigrate into the United States since 2008. In Guatemala, she experienced discrimination, sexual assault, and life-threatening assaults due to her gender identity. And because of her indigenous heritage, it was unlikely that she would have found justice from law enforcement or the government. She dreamed of traveling to the States for a chance to start a new life. However, when Santos-Zacaria tried to enter the U.S. in 2008 at the age of 17, she was deported by ICE. She tried again in 2018 only to be detained at LaSalle Detention Facility in Louisiana.
Her case was taken up by Benjamin Osorio, a private immigration attorney, who fought for her to be allowed into the country. Unfortunately, Santos-Zacaria was deported again in 2019. He brought the case before the Fifth Circuit, but was rejected because they claimed Santos-Zacaria hadn’t exhausted all her other options regarding immigration courts. But Osorio kept fighting and eventually managed to bring the case all the way to the Supreme Court, which delivered a unanimous decision in Santos-Zacaria’s favor in May 2023. The Supreme Court ruled that although noncitizens were technically supposed to exhaust all other options before being brought to the Circuit Court of Appeals, the court should express more flexibility in which cases it receives.
This groundbreaking decision essentially opened up dozens of new avenues for judicial review, making it much easier for other immigrants to have their cases heard. But the Supreme Court also set a precedent in another way: In the Court’s decision, it mentioned Santos-Zacaria’s preferred name alongside her legal name. It also used her proper pronouns throughout. This was a considerable step in demonstrating the Court’s recognition of transgender people. It is particularly fascinating to see this in light of the U.S. federal justice system’s trend towards conservatism in recent years, with cases such as 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis taking a more lax stance on anti-discrimination policy.
Meanwhile, Santos-Zacaria was allowed to return to the U.S. in late summer. She currently lives in California near several family members, where she awaits her next opportunity at the Fifth Circuit. She says, “We get together, and I just feel safe. Safety is what I’ve always wanted and looked for. It feels good to socialize with the LGBTQ community and to feel support from people.”
