Lionel Cantú Jr. with Eithne Luibhéid and Alexandra Minna Stern, “Well Founded Fear: Political Asylum and the Boundaries of Sexual Identity in the U.S.–Mexico Borderlands”

Between 1999 and 2002, Cantú served as an expert witness in five cases involving Mexican men who petitioned for asylum in the United States on the basis of persecution for sexual orientation. The cases were processed in California, and all five men were eventually granted asylum. Cantú’s participation as an expert witness reflected his commitment to using his sociological training and university faculty status to challenge inequalities and to assist those with less privilege. Having researched the lives of men who have sex with men in Mexico, and in migrant Mexican communities in the United States, Cantú appreciated the struggles and courage that underlay each application for asylum based on sexual orientation. Yet, he also began to observe a similarity to the process through which these asylum claims were adjudicated. While standardization remains the cornerstone to ensuring equal application of the law, it also meant that individual asylum applicants’ experiences were elicited and given meaning within larger institutional structures that Cantú began to question.