Ivette Feliciano: This past May, about 200 people from across the U.S. and Puerto
Rico gathered in Philadelphia for a conference dedicated to migrant rights. The
sentiments they
expressed were a
familiar part of America’s immigration debate. But the people they were talking
about were less so.
Jorge Gutierrez:
Queer and trans folks are being impacted in many ways, in different ways than
say, straight undocumented immigrants.
Ivette Feliciano:
Jorge Gutierrez is the Executive Director of Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement,
or TQLM, a volunteer-led group that advocates for Latinx immigrants who
identify as lgbtq. According to the UCLA School of
Law’s Williams Institute, there are at least 267,000 undocumented lgbtq immigrants living in the U.S. Gutierrez says Familia:
TQLM’s goal is to put a national spotlight on their unique circumstances, both
in the U.S. and back in their home countries.
Jorge Gutierrez: They're
facing discrimination, racism, you know, transphobia, homophobia in their own
communities in their own families and then they find themselves being detained
for months and months, right? Trying to find-- trying to get asylum, trying to
get refuge.
Ivette Feliciano:
Trans migrants, says Gutierrez, face a specific set of obstacles. Take the
story of 28-year old Victoria Castro, a trans migrant from El Salvador. She
says she applied for asylum in 2017 after being the target of violence back
home.
Victoria Castro: We
are being pursued and attacked. That is what motivates trans women to immigrate
into this country and to seek whatever safety we can.
Ivette Feliciano:
Castro used to run workshops on trans health and safety practices in El
Salvador. She says one night while doing outreach with sex workers in the
country’s capital, San Salvador, she was beaten and shot in the shoulder by a
group of gang members.
Victoria Castro: It’s
not just the blows they gave me and the gunshot, it’s the offensive words they
used when they were hitting me. The awful language that people use when they
attack a trans person. And then to think that you have to go back out onto the
streets where it happened. It was so difficult.
Ivette Feliciano:
Castro went to Salvadoran authorities and identified the men who attacked her.
Victoria Castro: I
wanted justice, which I thought would be possible because I recognized the men
that did this to me, but that was not the outcome.
Ivette Feliciano:
Police detained but eventually released the men with no charges. Castro says
they knew she was the one who had complained, so they began to follow her and
threaten her with death.
Victoria Castro: I
said to myself, if I stay here in El Salvador, they will kill me. That is when
I decided to take the long trip from El Salvador to the U.S.
Ivette Feliciano:
Castro walked and hitchhiked for five months.
Victoria Castro: I
suffered through what most immigrants suffer on the journey to this country in
search of the American dream and stability. That is, going hungry, sleeping on
the streets, trying to stay safe. You’re navigating this huge country of Mexico
and you don’t know anyone, no one to help you or support you. It was a
terrifying experience.
Ivette Feliciano: Castro
says she was sexually assaulted twice on her journey. She finally crossed into
the U.S. at El Paso, Texas, on January 1st, 2017, and shortly after was taken
to a detention center.
Victoria Castro: That
was the start of another horrible ordeal, which was going into ICE detention.
It is difficult when you show up and your appearance is completely feminine but
your document says you are a man. They brought me into the famous “ice-boxes”
as they call them. And they were full of men, and they knew that because I was
there, that I was trans. They started screaming at me and I began to panic. But
the officer told me unfortunately that is where I had to go because they had no
other place to put me. But I insisted that I didn’t feel safe. So they
handcuffed me to a pole outside the ice-box for about six hours.
Ivette Feliciano: Two
weeks passed before she was sent to a special trans unit that immigration and
customs enforcement operated at the time in Santa Ana, California. In the
meantime, she says she was transferred to five other detention centers, where
she was forced to shower in front of men, and strip-searched by male officers.
Victoria Castro: I
was surrounded by men at points and felt constantly under threat. I could
barely sleep because I was so worried.
Ivette Feliciano:
Jorge Gutierrez of Familiar says Castro’s story is not unique, and that the
experience of being in detention often re-traumatizes trans migrants already
fleeing violence back home.
Jorge Gutierrez:
These are folks that are already being criminalized, or already being targeted,
just by the way they look, their presentation, their gender identity, their
sexual orientation. We have folks in our base that were detained years ago, and
are still dealing with the trauma.
Ivette Feliciano: So
far this year, ICE housed 300 self-identified transgender detainees in its
custody among 32 facilities, according to the agency. There is only one
detention center with a special unit dedicated to trans migrants, which can
hold up to 60 people.
In
2015 the U.S. Government announced a new set of guidelines intended to improve
detention conditions for trans migrants, making it a priority to place them in
units that exclusively house trans women or men, and ensuring that trans
detainees on hormone therapy receive continued treatment. There’s also guidance
on the appropriate language that should be used during intake and subsequent
interviews.
But a
2016 study by Human Rights Watch found there is little oversight to ensure the
guidelines are followed. It also showed that more than half of transgender
women interviewed were held in men’s facilities at some point in their
detention. And it listed trans women and men as among those who “are often
placed in solitary confinement for weeks or months at a time, as an alleged
form of ‘protection’ that is often imposed against their wishes.”
Lynly Egyes: We have a client right
now that's been in solitary confinement for 17 months.
Ivette Feliciano: Lynly Egyes is Legal Director at
the Transgender Law Center, the largest trans-led organization doing policy and
legal representation work in the U.S. They’ve partnered with Familia: TQLM in
holding press conferences and protests regarding the deaths of two trans women
who died after being detained by ICE within the last year, and others who have
attempted suicide while in solitary confinement.
Lynly Egyes: We see this over and
over again, whether it's reports of sexual and physical violence, whether it's
actual deaths in detention, or whether it's just access to medical care, that
trans people cannot be safely housed in detention centers.
Ivette Feliciano: In an email to PBS
NewsHour Weekend, ICE said decisions regarding the locations where individuals
will be detained are made on a case by case basis and that it “is committed to
upholding an immigration detention system that prioritizes the health, safety,
and welfare of all of those in our care in custody.”
Still,
the TLC wants ICE to end all detention of trans migrants, and for the
Department of Homeland Security to use a spectrum of alternatives at its
disposal in order to ensure individuals make their court dates.
The
organization also connects queer and trans migrants with pro-bono lawyers who
understand the nuances of representing them in immigration proceedings, like
looking at immigration options outside of asylum, such as visas that exist for
immigrant victims of human trafficking.
Lynly Egyes: And that's a really big deal because human trafficking is rampant in the
trans community. Criminalization is rampant in the trans community. And we need
to be addressing these other issues, especially when we're trying to help
people get immigration status.
Ivette Feliciano:
After three and a half months in detention, Victoria Castro was released and is
currently waiting for a decision on her asylum case. In the meantime, she’s
sharing her story at events coordinated by Familia: TQLM.
In
February, a trans woman was murdered in El Salvador shortly after she was denied
asylum in the U.S. and deported back. Castro worries if she is deported, the
same might happen to her.
Victoria Castro: If
I’m not approved for asylum, the danger is that I’m sent back to my country and
am assassinated, because they’ve already tried to assassinate me. The police
reports did not help, I know if I’m sent back they’ll kill me. It could happen
to me, and it could happen to others like me who have come here to escape
violence. If they send us back to our countries, they are sending us to our
deaths.
###
|
TIMECODE |
LOWER
THIRD |
1 |
2:15 |
VICTORIA CASTRO ASYLUM SEEKER |
2 |
4:02 |
VICTORIA CASTRO ASYLUM SEEKER |
3 |
4:26 |
(COURTESY) PHOTO: DON RAMEY LOGAN |
4 |
5:09 |
JORGE GUTIERREZ EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FAMILIA: TQLM |