A transgender American who bolted from the U.S. over Trump fears is back in California, calling the whole ordeal the dumbest decision of her life.
Jane-Michelle Arc, a 48-year-old software engineer, packed up and jetted off to the Netherlands in April 2025 after Donald Trump reclaimed the Oval Office. She sought refugee protection, claiming she was terrified for her safety as a trans person in America. But the asylum experiment blew up spectacularly, and she ended up crawling back stateside with zero protections granted, according to reports.
Here is where the story gets truly wild. Arc had been living in San Francisco and said she faced harassment and threats, including one scary incident where a driver allegedly said he would kill her. So she flew to Amsterdam, showed up at Schiphol Airport, and asked officials how to file for refugee status. They pointed her toward Ter Apel, the country's biggest asylum seeker facility, which holds around 2,000 people.
What she found there was apparently way worse than what she left behind.
The center was plagued by overcrowding, violence, and serious security problems. Arc told The Guardian she encountered hostility from fellow asylum seekers who were hostile toward trans individuals. She grew so frightened that she stopped making basic trips outside the facility. Dutch News confirmed the place was having an absolutely brutal summer, with aid organizations pulling out temporarily after multiple physical altercations, including two separate stabbings.
"The situation I have in the US as a trans person, not good, right?" Arc told reporters. "But here, I will be hurt or killed."
That is quite the reversal from someone who originally fled America because she thought it was too dangerous.
Arc was far from alone in her impulse to seek refuge abroad. Dutch government data reveals 76 Americans applied for asylum in the Netherlands during 2025. That number was up dramatically from just nine the prior year and 18 in 2023. But here is the kicker. Of 60 decisions rendered on those American cases, not a single one resulted in a residence permit. Forty got flat out rejected. Another 20 wrapped up without any real ruling.
Zero for sixty. That is a batting average that would get you cut from a little league team.
Dutch officials made their position crystal clear, stating that conditions in the United States do not create a general basis for assuming LGBT Americans face legitimate persecution. Each claim gets reviewed individually, and American applicants simply did not meet the threshold.
Arc had originally pointed to Trump's executive order directing the federal government to recognize only two biological sexes, along with the rollback of several Biden era gender identity policies, as reasons for her departure.
Now safely back in California, Arc still voices criticism about how trans people are treated in America. But she freely admits that her grand escape plan backfired in spectacular fashion.
"I did it because I was afraid for my life," she explained. But with the benefit of hindsight, she described her decision with a bluntness that is hard to argue with. "Wildly stupid."
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