Judge allows Jamaican drug dealer to avoid deportation after being told he has a transgender child
An immigration tribunal was told that the girl only speaks to her father, who is the subject of an anonymity order and known only as GH, about her gender identity issues and does not discuss these with her mother.
Judge Sarah Pinder, who sits in the Upper Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber, found that the career criminal's mixed-race children would have 'unmet emotional needs linked not just to the loss of a parent but to the loss of the parent who represents half of their cultural identity'.
It was therefore judged 'unduly harsh' on them to deport him – even though they witnessed him beating their mother.
GH arrived in Britain in October 1991 aged 15, and was granted indefinite leave to remain in April 1993. He served jail time for numerous offences between 2007 and 2015.
In March 2021 he was convicted of supplying crack cocaine and heroin and sentenced to 40 months in prison, at which point his deportation was ordered.
He appealed this under Article 8 of the Human Rights Act and his case was heard in October 2023 by Judge C L Taylor at the First-tier Tribunal.
The judge found that GH had 'a genuine and subsisting parental relationship' with his children, although it was 'limited' and he was separated from the mother, who had no difficulty caring for them while he was in prison.
But, the judge found: 'One of the Appellant's children became withdrawn when the Appellant went to prison and she continued to struggle even after his release. The same child was experiencing issues with her gender identity, which she had only been able to discuss with her father.'
A social worker then reported that deportation 'would cause the children emotional harm and potentially negatively impact upon all areas of the children's development, including key areas of identity, family and social relationships'.
The judge went on to rule that 'deportation would be unduly harsh upon the Appellant's children' and that '(g)iven their cultural identity the harshness which the deportation would cause for them is elevated beyond just harshness to undue harshness and is of a sufficiently elevated degree to outweigh the public interest'.
Home Office lawyers questioned how GH could be said to be a 'positive influence' in his children's lives, given that they had witnessed his domestic abuse of their mother and his 'extensive criminal record'.
But Judge Pinder stated: 'The Respondent's first submission under this ground is surprising considering the Respondent had accepted that the Appellant had a genuine parental relationship with his children...I consider that the Respondent's first ground is no more than a mere disagreement with the Judge's findings and an attempt to re-argue her case in this Tribunal.'
Pinder added: 'It is also well established that a parent who has contact, or spends time with their children, as opposed to living with them, comes within the definition of genuine parental relationship.'
She concluded: 'With regards to the cultural and racial identity, that finding was also open to the Judge on the evidence before them particularly when one of the Appellant's children was already experiencing questions concerning her gender identity and could not speak about this with anyone else other than her father…In the circumstances, I dismiss the Respondent Secretary of State's appeal and order that the decision of the Judge shall stand.'
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