Christina Lopez

Christina Lopez, a transgender woman from Peru and a survivor of human trafficking, was first detained by immigration officials in 2014 and spent almost five years in ICE custody until she secured a special visa and was released in 2019. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) took on Christina’s case in March 2018, after TLC filed a motion to reopen her case and a stay of removal arguing that her past criminal convictions were due to the fact she’d been a victim of human trafficking. Although the motion to reopen was several years past the deadline, due to exceptional circumstances the petition was granted. She won her case at the BIA, her case was reopened, and on January 31, 2019, her trafficking visa was approved.