Hannah Kreager asked for asylum in the near country to be a transgender woman and the persecution of fear for this
“I have to get out of here as soon as possible,” said Hannah Kreagger.
It was the beginning of April and the American – who is a transgender woman – 22 years old, was already working on the idea of leaving the United States.
Given what activists and organizations describe as an increasingly hostile context for the LGBTQIA+community, Kreager has started to take some precautions.
He stopped using public toilets and started avoiding the crowd. He also began to store medicine for hormonal replacement therapy, fearing that the federal government prohibits medical treatments for gender affirmation in adults after having labeled this assistance for minors such as “chemical and surgical mutilation”.
But it was the rumor that President Donald Trump would have thought of invoking the 1807 business law that anticipated his plans.
The standard allows the federal government to use troops to control a possible rebellion in its territory, and the young woman wondered what would have been his if he had been stopped by the authorities and asked her to identify.
He had already renewed his driving license for data coinciding with his legal name and gender identity.
“But I worried about the passport,” he explained.
It is only that this document identifies it with the name he had before the transition and the X gender marker, something that the United States did not do in January, when Trump decreed that it should be a government policy recognizing only two sexes: male and female.
What would happen if they didn’t consider it a valid identification? Where would they take it? What options would you have?
The accumulated questions.
“So I decided that I was not willing to take any risk, even if up to now the martial law has not been imposed,” he admitted.
Thus, he greeted his friends in Tucson, a city in Arizona on the border with Mexico, put his personal effects in a car and, with his family support, he headed north to the border with Canada, where he asked asylum.
Today he expects the decision of his case to Calgary, the main city of the province of Alberta. If you receive the state of protection, your case will open a precedent, according to your legal representative, Yamena Asari.
According to Asari, he receives more and more US customers interested in following Kreagger’s footsteps.
In the meantime, the data published last week by Canada Immigration and Refugees Board show that more American have requested refugees status in the country in the first half of 2025 compared to 2024.
The Americans constitute a small part of the total asylum candidates in Canada – 245 of 55,000 – and their acceptance rate was historically low.
And asylum candidates of other countries that cross the terrestrial border from the United States are often “returned” due to a bilateral agreement that establishes that they should ask for asylum in the first “safe” country to which they arrive.
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“The request for asylum is usually not the first option for many reasons,” recognizes Ansari.
“It takes a long time to be resolved, up to two years, and there is no guarantee that it will be granted. So the uncertainty for the customer is exceptional, and this still implies not being able to return to the country of origin,” he explains.
But for Kreagger’s profile – a new exit from high school, having worked on his mother’s pizzeria – did not seem feasible to apply to a specialized visa, talent or business, for example.
Given the approved gender laws or be considered in various states, in addition to the actions taken by the management of Trump to revoke the programs and federal departments created by previous governments to support or protection of the LGBTQ+ community in general, they have decided to resort to kindergarten.
According to Trans Legislation Tracker, an independent initiative that monitors the invoices that affect trans people in the United States, so far 121 of these legislations have been approved and 981 have been taken into consideration, both state and federal level.
It is a substantial increase compared to the previous year, when all records had already been overcome.
In just two years, there was no national initiative of this type recorded at a total of 88 in 2024.
Among the invoices presented so far in 2025, there are those who intend to legislate on education, such as those who try to eliminate the references to what they call “gender ideology” of school supplies or those who would have forced to reveal students of students.
Others cover the health sector – such as the prohibition of gender affirmation services for mentors – or sport. In fact, more than a third of states approved laws that prohibit transgender athletes to participate in women’s competitions.
But there are also initiatives in other categories, ranging from civil rights to religious exemptions, through the use of pronouns and access to military service.
And practically no state is free from this: legislative chambers of 49 of the 50 US states are evaluating this type of invoice.
This is added to the deluge of executive orders signed by Trump since he took the presidency in January.
Among these are the “radical ending of indoctrination ending in schools”, protect minors from chemical and surgical mutilation “and” keep men away from women’s sports “.
Information on the latter, on April 16, the prosecutor General Pam Bondi said:
“This was a great cause for him [Trump]. And it’s quite simple: girls compete in women’s sports competitions. Men in the male. “
In this line, the non-profit organization GLAD-A that supports the elimination of discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, during the first 100 days of Trump in the White House, which considers 225 anti-Lgbtq+attacks.
Having said that, the lawyer Ansari formally presented the request for asylum on June 1, on the basis of the fact that his client “fears the persecution in his country due to the anti -administration policies of the current administration”.
Fear of persecution
The process for requesting asylum in Canada is not very different from other countries.
The applicant must demonstrate that his fears of persecution are linked to his breed, religion, nationality, social group to which he belongs or political opinion and that his life is dangerous or risk of dealing with torture or cruel care.
It must also be demonstrated that it cannot obtain state protection or move within your country.
Given the question, he considered, as some of his transgender compatriots, who moved to states with greater protection, Krager was stopped: “No state is safe”.
“Even if he had done it, if he had settled in California, New York or Illinois, there would still be federal services that he would like to access and influence, how to modify his passport to reflect his right kind,” explains Krager’s lawyer.
After a Canadian immigration agent evaluated the admissibility of the request and its eligibility in the country, reference is made to the Canadian immigration and refugees Council to decide on the case.
“Based on simple facts, my client has a solid case,” says Ansari, who has worked for years with asylum candidates from other countries, in particular from West Africa and the Arab countries.
“I certainly see many parallels between these cases and the experience of Hannah. We are saying that in some states like her, American like her, they could not be recognized.”
Despite this, the lawyer admits that there are other factors at stake, such as the possible lack of understanding in Canada of the socio-political context of the United States and a growing feeling of anti-immigration.
Feeling of anti-immigration
Anti-immigration research is demonstrated by research.
The latest edition of Focus Canada, held by the environment since 1976 in collaboration with the Institute of Diversity of the Metropolitan University of Toronto, concluded in November that “for the first time in a quarter of the century, the majority of the Canadians states that there is too much immigration”.
According to the survey, 6 out of 10 (58%) Canadian believe that the country accepts many immigrants, 14% more than 2023, when an increase of 17 points had already been recorded compared to the previous year.
The percentage is higher among the voters of the conservative party (80%) than the liberal party (45%) or by the Social Democrats of the new Democratic Party (36%), although the increase is common and equivalent.
Another survey, also published in November and conducted by the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, showed a similar panorama, with 56% of interviewees who say that refugees and asylum seekers “receive too many benefits” in Canada.
The percentage of the edition of the previous year was 49%.
The survey also showed a “significant reduction” of the number of Canadians who believe that immigration improves the country: from 52% in 2023 to 44% this year.
“Immigrants of all kinds, but above all asylum candidates, are used as goals in front of the crisis of the life course in the country,” says Ansari.
However, he believes that the immigration and refugee advice will see further and is confident about the case.
Pending the hearing, Kreager is authorized to study and work and is collecting donations through the Gofundme platform to cover the costs and expenses of the lawyer.
It is considered privileged, since not all people can leave the United States and request a kindergarten in Canada.
He also says that he seems safer, that the fear of waking up and realizing that “his existence has been criminalized” is already passing.
But the context in the United States could change in the coming years.
If the Democrats recover the control of the Half’s Half Elections in 2026 elections or the White House in the 2028 elections, there is a more friendly approach to LGBTQ+rights.
This would weaken the accusation of Kreagger of Temer persecutions in his country because of his gender identity.
“If Canada denies me the asylum, it will be because things are better in the United States.”
Source: Terra
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