May 28, 2015 – Santa Ana, CA – Five LGBTQ and Immigrant rights leaders have taken over intersection of Flower and Civic Center, near the detention center in Santa Ana that holds transgender detainees, in a protest risking arrest to demand an immediate end to detention and deportation, starting with releasing undocumented transgender women.

After being questioned directly about the topic, Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton echoed the #Not1More LGBTQ Deportation campaign’s demand to end the detention of transgender immigrants, saying, “I do not think we should put children and vulnerable people into detention facilities because I think they are at risk. Their physical and mental health are at risk.”

Protest organizers today are saying ‘If Clinton can promise it, President Obama can do it now.’

They cite the experience of formerly detained protest participants as well as recent reports exposing the epidemic of violence against undocumented Trans detainees under Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s watch in detention centers around the country as a crisis that needs immediate action. Rogue practices on behalf of ICE include incarcerating Trans women at all male facilities where they are subject to sexual assault and harassment, denying them hormone medication, and through deportation that returns them to situations of likely violence that often spurred their original journey to the US for safety.

Isa Noyola, who is risking arrest, says: “For too long our communities have been experiencing oppression through its immigration system. With each presidential administration advocates rally and push for reform measures and some lose sight of the broader vision for liberation. We are here today to uplift these broader demands of liberation; an end to detention centers and the criminalization of our transgender, gender non-conforming and queer communities. Trans women today are at the frontlines and showing up for our communities because our lives are on the line.”

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