As Obama Administration Nears Two Million Deportations, Groups Across Country Say “Not One More,” Urge White House Action

 Transgender Law Center and Southerners On New Ground, alongside a broad coalition of LGBTQ organizations, proudly endorse the #Not1more Deportation campaign and the protests and marches occurring on the April 4^th and 5^th National Days of Action across the country.

Among the two million immigrants deported by the Obama administration—1,100 people deported every day, and 34,000 people caged in immigration detention centers every single night—are countless LGBTQ individuals and their family, friends, and loved ones. Under the current system of detention and deportation, LGBTQ immigrants, especially transgender women of color, often experience horrific treatment within immigration detention centers, including violence, deprivation of necessary medical care, dehumanization and assaults on basic dignity, psychological torture in solitary confinement, and rape. A recent study demonstrated that transgender women survivors made up 20% of substantiated sexual assault claims in immigration detention.[1] Many detained LGBTQ immigrants simply give up and accept deportation rather than continue to fight for the asylum that they qualify for under existing law because their detention conditions are so unbearable. Too many of our deported community members then end up facing the violence and sometimes murder that they had originally come to the United States to flee. The current immigration detention and deportation crisis harms us deeply, and we call on President Obama to act within his powers to end the cruel and senseless tearing apart of LGBTQ people’s communities. Read more