Gay man seeking asylum was deported to Chad. A judge has ordered US to let him return

A gay man who was deported to Chad after seeking asylum for a decade has been given a second chance — at least for now.

A federal judge ordered the Department of Homeland Security to let Oumar Yaide, 31, back into the country on a temporary restraining order, saying that his due process rights had been violated, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The court then has to decide if his case will be reopened.

Yaide has lived in San Francisco for around eight years and hasn’t lived in Chad for 10 years.

He was arrested by ICE in August, his attorney said, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. He was detained in Yuba County Jail for around three months. ICE was ordered to return Yaide in two weeks, but the agency has since asked for additional time.

Yaide immigrated to the U.S. in 2009 and sought asylum but was denied in 2014. He had been appealing his case until he was deported, according to a Pangea Legal Services release.

Yaide appealed his asylum application being denied on the basis that he’s part of the Gorane ethnic group and fears persecution in Chad. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco denied his appeal in December 2018, according to court records.

Yaide “is a member of the Gorane ethnic group [also known as the Toubou or Dazaga] and his family are political dissidents,” Edwin Carmona-Cruz, Director of Public Engagement at San Francisco’s Pangea Legal Services, told 48Hills.

“They suffer persecution on this basis, so that’s why he left to seek asylum in the U.S. and has been fighting his case since then. He and his cousin both came to Dulles at the same time. His cousin basically applied for asylum on the same grounds, and was granted asylum — versus Oumar, who was denied. He’s been appealing since.”

Chad criminalized homosexuality in 2016, according to Out in Perth.

Someone also started a GoFundMe for Yaide and raised $11,600 in donations.