Immigration and LGBTs: Central Americans in Limbo Caitlin Donohue - Advocate.com
go to original March 10, 2015

Jessica Noemi Coro Lorenzana prepares the afternoon meal for her fellow resident immigrants at Casa Tochan.

Last year President Barack Obama chose November 20, which is also Transgender Day of Remembrance, to announce his executive action that overhauled U.S. immigration policy. Despite the coincidence, the changes the president put into action didn’t provide much cheer for LGBT immigrants.

Obama extended protection from deportation to roughly 3.7 million immigrants. But most of the guarantees were reserved for people whose legally recognized spouses, children, or parents were already American citizens. This was small comfort for LGBT folk whose partners are often not legally recognized, are estranged from family members, and for whom giving birth to a child in the traditional manner is often out of reach.

...For many queer people, the United States still represents a place where they can be themselves with less fear of persecution and violence. The University of California at Los Angeles’s Williams Institute estimates that of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, more than 267,000 identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. The journey to the United States is brutal, particularly for would-be immigrants coming from Mexico or Central America. Gangs in Mexico earn revenue by preying on vulnerable transitory people, and crossing the U.S. border illegally can entail a dangerous ride in a coyote’s truck or a long trek on foot across the desert. Still, they come. Many are turned back, and still they come again. Their stories make the risk-taking understandable.

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