By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, August 12, 2026
A hand holds up a small transgender pride flag. The blue and pink stripes represent the colors for a boy and girl, while the white stripe represents self-declared gender identities, such as transitioning, intersex, neutral and undefined gender. | Getty Images
A California man who identifies as a woman and fled the United States following President Donald Trump’s reelection has returned home, saying life at a Dutch refugee center became more frightening than the conditions he left behind.
Jane-Michelle Arc, a 48-year-old software engineer, left the U.S. and traveled to the Netherlands in April 2025. He was housed at Ter Apel, which serves as the country’s primary and largest registration center for asylum seekers.
Arc ultimately left the Netherlands without receiving a residence permit and returned to California last month, according to reports from The New York Post and Brussels Signal.
After returning, Arc said he is more comfortable in the U.S. but claimed that the “transphobia is quite overt.”
“America is really, really loud and overwhelming. And everything is so expensive,” the California man wrote on social media.
“The Dutch complain about groceries being expensive, but good grief, San Francisco is a whole different experience,” he added.
The trans-identifying male said part of the reason he returned home was that he experienced hostility from other asylum seekers, including people from Syria, Morocco, Eritrea, Somalia, Turkey and Algeria. He became afraid that he could be seriously injured or killed.
Ter Apel has faced scrutiny over reports of overcrowding and crime. On July 10, Dutch asylum minister Bart van den Brink, of the Christian Democratic Appeal, canceled a surprise visit after authorities on the ground determined it to be unsafe.
Arc, as well as the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA), which manages Ter Apel, did not immediately respond to The Christian Post’s request for comment. This article will be updated if a response is received.
In interviews with the media, Arc described the environment at Ter Apel as “dire,” saying that he didn’t feel safe walking to the grocery store.
“This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever done,” Arc previously told The Guardian about his decision to leave the U.S.
“I hear a lot of people saying: ‘You are an idiot. You came here from America.’ People will tell me: ‘Did you think about moving to California?’ And then I say: ‘Well, I lived in San Francisco,’ and then they go: ‘Oh, that’s a heaven for gay people,’” the asylum seeker continued.
“But it’s different for trans people, particularly for trans women, to the extent that my experience in San Francisco, robot taxis aside, was indistinguishable from [that of] the people that I knew from Libya and Iran and Morocco and Algeria,” he asserted.
Arc is not the only American who attempted to seek asylum in the Netherlands. According to the Dutch asylum and immigration ministry, 76 Americans tried to claim asylum in the Netherlands last year, up from nine in 2024.
The chances of Americans having their asylum claims granted are low, according to Marlou Schrover, a professor of economic and social history at Leiden University.
Schrover told The Guardian that the United Nations Refugee Convention makes it clear that refugees must demonstrate that they faced persecution in their home country and were denied protection from local authorities.
“And after that, you have to see if there is a safe flight alternative within your country,” the professor who studies the Dutch immigration system explained.
According to Schrover, the U.S. government denying someone the ability to put their self-declared gender identity on their passport is not enough for a claim to be successful.
“If the US moves towards putting people in prison, treating them really, really bad because of their [gender identity], and with no other claim added to the reasons why they’re in prison, then the situation would definitely change,” Schrover stated.
The professor also noted that the Dutch authorities are hesitant about declaring the U.S. an unsafe country.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman