Lucia, a transgender woman from El Salvador, survived relentless sexual violence throughout her childhood. She was raped by a family acquaintance at gunpoint, raped by Salvadoran police officers while detained as a minor, and later raped again by armed men who broke into her family's home and attacked her relatives because of her gender identity. DHS sought to pretermit her case and send her to Guatemala or Ecuador under asylum cooperative agreements. Despite extensive evidence documenting violence against LGBTQ people in both countries — including lethal anti-trans violence — the immigration judge concluded she had not shown she was likely to face persecution there and granted pretermission, relying in part on Ecuador's formal legal protections despite evidence they are ineffective in practice. She was denied the opportunity to have the merits of her asylum claim heard.