Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), when we honor the memory of transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence. Today, and every day, we remember those who are no longer with us, including Johana Medina Leon and Roxsana Hernandez.

At the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), we also are remembering Alicia*, a client who died in Mexico after she was denied protection by an immigration judge in Georgia. Despite her NIJC lawyers working around the clock to represent her and support her through the horrible abuse she experienced in detention, Alicia was deported. Shortly after, she experienced violence relating to her gender identity and we soon learned of her death. Her lawyers strongly believe that if she had been granted protection and remained in the United States, Alicia would still be here with us.

LGBTQ immigrants in the United States encounter unique obstacles to securing protection and safety, particularly when trapped in the immigration enforcement and detention systems. For trans people, being detained means the risk of inadequate medical care; physical, verbal, and sexual violence; and misgendering. One in four reported incidents of sexual abuse in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention involved a transgender individual. LGBTQ individuals are 97 times more likely to face sexual abuse than non-LGBTQ people in immigration detention.

Ending detention isn’t just our dream - it’s also Gretta’s. In a letter to President Biden, Gretta calls for an immigration system based in education and connection, not punishment and detention. As a trans woman who spent nearly two and a half years in ICE detention, Gretta understands firsthand the horrors transgender immigrants face in detention.

NIJC’s LGBT Immigrant Rights Initiative has represented dozens of transgender immigrants as they fought for survival in the U.S. immigration detention system after escaping violence and abuse in their home countries.

Kelly Gonzalez Aguilar is a transgender asylum seeker who spent more than two years in ICE detention, despite being eligible for release on parole. Kelly had experienced relentless violence and abuse since she was a child in Honduras. While in ICE detention, she was put in solitary confinement for months solely due to her gender identity. A coalition of 90 human rights organizations, including NIJC, sent a letter to the acting directors of the Department of Homeland Security and ICE telling Kelly’s story and demanding the release of all transgender people in ICE custody. Thanks to the tireless work of a coalition of groups and community members, Kelly was freed after 1,051 days in detention.

Alexis, a transgender woman from Guatemala, arrived at the U.S. border in August 2019. When she arrived, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents never asked about her fear of returning to her native country or the violence and persecution she faced in Guatemala, which they are required to do. Instead, agents made fun of her gender, pulled her hair, yelled at her, and sent her to be criminally prosecuted for unauthorized entry. After several months, she was deported to Guatemala. With the help of NIJC, Alexis was able to return to the United States and fight for asylum. Listen to Alexis share her story.

Alejandra Barrera fought for transgender rights for more than a decade in El Salvador. After repeated attacks by a criminal gang and abuse by the Salvadoran military, she was forced to flee. In the United States, Alejandra was detained for nearly two years and experienced serious medical neglect. Alejandra’s NIJC lawyers filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus on her behalf, arguing that her prolonged detention violated protections against indefinite detention under the U.S. Constitution. In response to the habeas and international advocacy efforts spearheaded by Amnesty International, TransLatin@ Coalition, NIJC, and dozens of members of Congress, Alejandra was released. After her release, Alejandra spoke at a Congressional hearing and met with members of Congress about her experience and to urge them to stop detaining transgender people.

Today, as we remember those who have died because of transphobic violence on TDOR, we also honor the beauty and inherent dignity of all of our transgender siblings, like Gretta, Kelly, Alexis, Alejandra, and Alicia, all of whom are women of color. We acknowledge how Black and Brown transgender people are particularly vulnerable to abuse as illustrated in our clients’ experiences.

Thank you for joining us in standing with them as we continue to fight for collective freedom, and for joining Gretta in her call for the Biden administration to end the abusive immigration detention system.

Jordyn Rozensky
Communications Strategist, National Immigrant Justice Center

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NATIONAL IMMIGRANT JUSTICE CENTER
224 S. Michigan Avenue, Suite 600  |  Chicago, Illinois  60604
immigrantjustice.org