LGBTQI Undocumented Immigrants: Detention Advocacy Needs

Introduction: The Crisis of Undocumented Immigration Detention

Undocumented immigrants in the United States, including undocumented LGBTQI immigrants, are put down and kept down by the current system of apprehension, detention, and post-detention abuse and 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 those 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 (Rodríguez, 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 of which are recognized 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 two million migrants have been deported, separating parents from their children and queer and transgender immigrants from their families and communities. There are more than 267,000 undocumented queer and transgender immigrants living in the United States who continue to be persecuted by inhumane immigration policies (#Not1More).

Scale and Conditions of U.S. Immigrant Detention

Each day, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) holds more than 31,000 immigrant detainees in facilities across the country — a number that has steadily increased from 6,259 in 1992 to approximately 20,000 in early 2006, and 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 and workplaces and policies that simplify deportation of even lawful permanent residents while 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, there are 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 are often as bad as or worse than those faced by imprisoned criminals (National Immigration Law Center, ACLU of Southern California and Holland & Knight vi).

When facilities fail to implement procedures required by admission and release standards, they may place detainees at grave physical risk. Detainees who are not properly oriented may not understand how to conform their actions to facility rules and may thus be unjustly subjected to disciplinary action. Detainees who are incorrectly classified or not properly screened medically may suffer neglect of serious medical needs. Detainees may also lose valuable personal property because a facility lacks procedures to report and track claims for missing property. Given these serious consequences, ICE facilities must do more to adhere to the provisions of admission and release standards (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, and 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. As one commentator reviewing deaths in detention observed, "[d]etention can become a death sentence" (Cuauhtemoc and Hernandez 896).

LGBTQI Detainees: Heightened Vulnerability

While the current situation is severely problematic for all detainees, particular groups are at increased risk for violence, harassment, and medical health issues. One such group is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer, Two Spirit, Trans, Gender Non-Conforming, and HIV+ (LGBTQI) detainees (Turney 1345). Particularly vulnerable, these individuals 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 and 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, transgender 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 the 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 explains that detention centers address these problems by placing people in administrative isolation (Sanchez).

These hostile environments can lead to depression and other emotional issues that haunt detainees throughout and beyond their detention. In 2011, Jonathan Perez, co-founder of Immigrant Youth Coalition, decided to be purposefully detained in order 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 our 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).

References

#Not1More. "Queer & Trans Immigrants from Across the Country Proclaim 'Liberation, Not Deportation.'" Not One More Deportation. Web. 17 March 2016.

Cuauhtemoc, Cesar, and Garcia Hernandez. "Invisible Spaces and Invisible Lives in Immigration Detention." Howard Law Journal 57.3 (2014): 869–898. Print.

Human Rights Watch. "You Don't Have Rights Here." 9 October 2015. Web. 17 March 2016.

National Immigration Law Center, ACLU of Southern California, and Holland & Knight. A Broken System: Confidential Reports Reveal Failures in U.S. Immigrant Detention Centers. White Paper. Washington, DC: National Immigration Law Center, 2009. Print.

Queer Detainee Empowerment Project (QDEP). "About the Queer Detainee Empowerment Project (QDEP)." 2016. Web. 17 March 2016.

Rodríguez, Michael A., Maria-Elena Young, and Steven P. Wallace. Creating Conditions to Support Healthy People: State Policies That Affect the Health of Undocumented Immigrants and Their Families. White Paper. San Francisco: University of California Global Health Institute, 2015. Print.

Sanchez, Erika L. "Left Out of the Narrative: LGBTQ Undocumented Detainees." 15 February 2014. Web. 17 March 2016.

Turney, C. T. "Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, and Your Queer: The Need and Potential for Advocacy for LGB Immigrant Detainees." UCLA Law Review 58.5 (2011): 1343–1388. Print.