Public Health -- Social Issues -- Statement of Need for a Cbo
Undocumented immigrants to the United States, including undocumented LGBTQI immigrants, are put down and kept down by the current system of apprehension, detention and post-detention abuse/negligence. Consequently, they need effective advocacy to reduce the number of detained undocumented immigrants, spur legislative and regulatory changes, improve standards of detention conditions and provide effective oversight of detention conditions. Furthermore, upon their release from detention, undocumented immigrants desperately need advocacy for health, legal and social service navigation.
There are approximately 11.2 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, with the largest numbers living in California, Texas, Florida, and New York. In addition, about four million U.S.-born citizen children have at least one undocumented parent; these "mixed status" families account for almost half of all families with undocumented adults (Rodrguez, Young and Wallace). Many migrants are seeking asylum from persecution by gangs in their home countries. Others fled abusive domestic partners or violence related to sexual orientation, both grounds for asylum under U.S. law (Human Rights Watch).
Most immigrants apprehended at or near the American-Mexican border are summarily deported, via expedited removal or reinstatement of removal, despite expressed fears about returning to their home countries. (Human Rights Watch). Under the current Administration, more than 2 million migrants have been deported, separating parents from their children and queer and Trans immigrants from their families and communities. There are more than 267,000 undocumented queer and Trans immigrants living in the United States who continue to be persecuted by the current inhumane immigration policies (#Not1More).
Each day, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) holds more than 31,000 immigrant detainees in facilities across the U.S. -- a number that has steadily increased, from 6,259 in 1992, to approximately 20,000 in early 2006, to the current figure of 31,000. This growth in the immigrant detainee population is due to a confluence of policy changes, including increased immigration raids at homes/workplaces and policies simplifying deportation of even lawful permanent residents and requiring detention of all immigrants, including asylum-seekers, before deportation (National Immigration Law Center, ACLU of Southern California and Holland & Knight vi).
Although immigrant detention is civil in nature and is not considered punishment for a criminal act, conditions in immigrant detention facilities are generally comparable to those in jails and prisons. As numerous recent incidents show, immigrant detainees routinely suffer from inadequate medical care, severe overcrowding, violence, and harassment (Turney 1345).
Furthermore, substantial and pervasive violations of the government's minimum standards for conditions at detention facilities. As a result, over 320,000 immigrants locked up each year not only face tremendous obstacles to challenging wrongful detention or winning their immigration cases, but the conditions in which these civil detainees are held often are as bad as or worse than those faced by imprisoned criminals (National Immigration Law Center, ACLU of Southern California and Holland & Knight vi).
When they fail to implement procedures required by the admission and release standard, facilities may place detainees at grave physical risk. Detainees who are not oriented properly may not understand how to conform their actions to facility rules and thus may be unjustly subjected to disciplinary action. Detainees who are classified improperly or who are not properly screened medically may suffer neglect of serious medical needs. Detainees may also lose valuable personal property because a facility does not have procedures in place to report and track claims for missing property. Given the serious consequences of not complying with the admission and release standard, ICE facilities must do more to adhere to its provisions (National Immigration Law Center, ACLU of Southern California and Holland & Knight 73).
Perhaps most egregiously, migrants have occasionally died in detention, with government officials sometimes concealing the deaths from public scrutiny. ICE reports that 131 people died while in immigration detention between October 2003 and December 6, 2012. At least five others have died since then. As New York Times reporter Nina Bernstein explained in 2010, "[f]or years, [deaths in immigration prisons] went uncounted and unnamed in the public record." Frequently, these deaths occurred because of inadequate medical attention provided within the facilities....
One such group is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, queer, Two Spirit, Trans, Gender Non- Conforming, and HIV+ (LGBTQI) detainees (Turney 1345). Particularly
vulnerable, these people are often subjected to "protective"
solitary confinement for no other reason than their identity (Cuauhtemoc and Hernandez 894). For example, Ronnie Veliz, 29, a queer migrant of
faith and public health organizer who grew up in the San Fernando Valley, states, "Authorities might claim it is safer for our marginalized population to be locked in LGBTQ pods inside detention centers, but we know that is not the case. I am risking arrest because my family values, faith, and roots will not allow me to remain silent or delay justice, so we need to abolish the criminalization,
dehumanization of LGBTQ people, the prisons, and detention systems" (#Not1More).
Clement Lee, an attorney at the Immigration Equality Center who provides representation for LGBTQ asylum seekers, says that in some extreme cases, Trans
women are placed in solitary confinement for months at a time. "Many detention centers don't know how to house Trans people. They almost always segregate them according to gender assignment given at birth," Lee says. "Many of our transgender women [housed in men's prisons] face increased danger of
sexual violence from both staff and detainees." Lee says that the detention centers address these problems by putting people in administrative isolation (Sanchez).
These hostile environments can lead to
depression and other emotional issues that haunt detainees throughout and beyond detention. In 2011, Jonathan Perez, co-founder of Immigrant Youth Coalition, decided to be purposefully detained to highlight the injustice of the Secure Communities Program. While in a detention center in Louisiana, he says he witnessed some of the more "feminine" men being harassed by fellow detainees. Perez says this experience caused him to become depressed and stay in bed all day. "I didn't want to face it," he says. "Whether we realize it or not, we experience out oppression all the time. In general, I think it's scary because you don't know what you're going to face in these places. It's inhumane to be detained." In addition to harassment and isolation, many LGBTQ-identified detainees face lack of access to HIV medication and/or needed hormone therapy. (Sanchez).
Rachel Ann Lewis, assistant professor in the Women and Gender Studies Program at George Mason
University, says that when it comes to asylum petitions based on LGBTQ identity, there is a real emphasis on visible performance of sexuality, which can also be dangerous while in detention. Many have to make the difficult choice to "perform" their
gender identity or
sexuality for their petition for asylum and risk being harassed in detention. Collecting evidence of their membership to particular group can be dangerous and difficult for some LGBTQ detainees, Lee adds. Many asylum-seekers, for instance, lack evidence because they've made efforts to conceal their sexuality out of fear of persecution in their home countries (Sanchez).
Lewis points out that asylum seekers cannot work, which forces many to be homeless. As a result, Lee says, many have to resort to criminalized conduct, such as shoplifting and sex work, to survive. Lulu Martinez, who emigrated from Mexico City at the age of 3, also infiltrated a detention center as an act of civil disobedience. She says that queer undocumented people there are caught in a double bind of belonging neither in white mainstream queer
narrative nor in the mainstream immigrant narrative. When it comes to immigration reform, she believes legislators should be "acknowledging a broader language that allows for more inclusion" (Sanchez).
Post-detention life can be particularly harrowing for LGBTQI individuals. Despite the myth of gay affluence, LGBTQI people face higher rates of
poverty than heterosexual and gender conforming people, especially in family contexts. This disparity is particularly acute for transgender people, who also suffer from significant barriers to education -- a key factor in income potential. Higher rates of poverty often compel people to engage in "survival crimes" in order to meet their basic needs or those of their family -- activity that is criminalized, but which individuals are essentially forced to engage in due to extreme poverty and
unemployment (Turney 1352).
Furthermore, New York State needs considerable work toward immigrant inclusion. Experts have rated states on immigrations inclusion using five classifications, with a possible high score of 3 in each category of: Public Health and Welfare Benefits;
Higher Education; Labor and employment practices; Driver licensing and identification; and Secure communities. Though host to a large population of undocumented immigrants, New York State scores 3, 0, 0, -1, -1, respectively in those categories, for a total score of 1 out of a possible high score of 15 (Rodrguez, Young and Wallace).
The Queer Detainee Empowerment Project (QDEP) was formed to meet…
