News

2021 ORGANIZATIONAL UPDATES/ACCOMPLISHMENTS

DIRECT SERVICES

COVID19 SUPPORT:

  • QDEP distributed over $240,180 to 376 trans and queer immigrants living in NYC for grocery, medication, utlity, phone service, and rent support, as well as mental health support. 
  • In February 2021, QDEP successfully collaborated with Growing SOUL to organize a food distribution event for our community members in Brooklyn.
  • In March 2021, QDEP received a $30,000 grant through the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) Food Security Campaign to provide groceries to our members from April to October 2021. 
  • On April 9th 2021, QDEP partnered with Amnesty International NYU to organize a food distribution drive for our members. We provided groceries, toiletries, and cleaning supplies to 20 QDEP members.

BORDER AND DETENTION CENTER PROGRAM: 

  • Between April 15th and June 15th 2021, we welcomed a total of 27 LGBTQIA+ immigrants in NYC, who came from the US/Mexico border. QDEP connected them to housing resources, medical and mental health services, legal support, transportation support, phone service, access to food and clothing, as well as community support. 
  • In 2021, we have provided support to 46 trans and queer immigrants detained by ICE helping them connect with free legal representation for their asylum, parole, and bond proceedings. We also provided them with monthly commissary funds ($40/month), letters of support, and contact to sponsors and community bond funds. We have also continued to maintain contact and provide emotional support through our hotline and PenPal programs. 

WINTER 2021 SUPPORT:

  • In November 2021, QDEP received 40 winter coats and 15 gift cards from the First Presbyterian Church in the City of New York. 
  • In December 2021, thanks to Stonewall Community Foundation, QDEP received a donation from Aritzia of 50 winter coats.
  • QDEP has also distributed hats, scarfs, gloves, and winter shoes to our members making sure they stay warm during the winter.

IMPROVING OUR DATABASES AND DATA MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

  • Between April and December, we created online intake forms in English, Spanish, and French, and online request forms for resources (groceries, support for utility bills and rent) and services (legal support, housing, English lessons, etc.)  to make it easier for our members to communicate their needs. 
  • We transitioned to the database program Airtable to have a more efficient and inclusive impact  for all of the services that we provide.

NEW PARTNERSHIPS:

  • QDEP officially entered into a partnership with El Colectivo Intercultural TRANSgrediendo in November 2021. Our organizations will work together to give direct support to our community, as well as on community organizing campaigns around TGNC immigrant justice. We are very excited to finally formalize our collaboration with this amazing organization.
  • We also continued working with Bronx Health Collective (BHC), which is connected to the Montefiore Hospital complex. BHC provides our members, independently of their immigration status and health insurance, access to holistic medical and mental health support.

COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

  • We completed the second cohort of our Leadership Development Program for trans women, cisgender queer women, and gender non-conforming immigrants, and recently started the third cohort session of that program, which is now supported and co-facilitated by members who successfully completed the previous cohorts.
  • Our members have continued to represent us at multiple panel discussions and have been featured on several TV channels, in newspapers, and on other media outlets like the Advocate Magazine, Democracy Now, BuzzFeed, Shonderland, Gay City News, Washington Blades, News12 NJ, Vogue magazine, amongst others, centering the experiences of LGBTQIA, GNC, and HIV+ immigrants.
  • We participated in countless local and national organizing and policy campaigns to fight for the freedom of LGBTQIA, GNC, and HIV+ immigrants, and the abolition  of all detention centers, prisons, and jails with campaigns such as Communities Not Cages, Walking While Trans Ban, and Dignity Not Detention.
  • The #WalkingWhileTrans ban was repealed. For years we have organized, educated, and mobilized to support #endstop&frisk2.0. For too long these discriminatory laws were used as a tool of violence against Black and brown trans people.
  • In celebration of Black History Month, we honored and uplifted the voices and stories of our Black queer and trans members and other queer and trans immigrants. Queer and trans immigrants have always been the leaders of their own movements and often don’t receive acknowledgment from mainstream media for these accomplishments.
  • QDEP partnered with different organizations to offer a virtual community conversation on COVID-19 vaccines. The discussion was focused on vaccine access and answered questions related to the health and safety of the LGBTQ+ community, Africans, Caribbean immigrants, and HIV-impacted people in NYC. 
  • We celebrated our trans members on Trans Day Of Visibility, for the bravery, victory, and success stories of trans people highlighting Black trans women. We understand the need to elevate the voices and visibility of trans immigrants and asylum seekers, and those with little or no support system, whose voices have been erased from the conversation, yet they have been risking their safety, lives, and freedom to fight for liberation and equality for all of us.
  • We partnered with the Caribbean Equality Project, Trans Asylia and VocalNYC to organize multiple rallies and marchs to demand Biden’s administration to prioritize and protect queer and trans immigrants and asylum seekers. Read more here
 
  • We launched multiple deportation defense campaigns to advocate for the release of the LGBTQ+ immigrants from ICE detention:
    • The #FreeOliver campaign: Oliver J. Dunbar, a Black gay immigrant from Jamaica, was detained by ICE for two years, even as he lived in the United States for over 40+ years and is a survivor of domestic violence. Unfortunately, despite all of our pressure, ICE deported him to Jamaica on May 27th, 2021.
    • The #FreePaulWhite campaign: Paul White, a Black bisexual migrant who has lived in the United States for over 20 years, and an entrepreneur with a passion for cooking, Paul’s dream is to open a food truck, serving meals and snacks from his home country. Paul has some health issues, including type 2 diabetes and hypertension, and he also struggles with depression and anxiety. Paul has a young daughter, who is a U.S. citizen and misses him, as well as friends, family, and his entire community in the United States. He’s currently held at the Caroline Detention Center in Virginia since August 2020 (over a year!) and we are working to get him released.
    • The #FreeJorge campaign: Jorge Rondon-Torrealba is originally from Venezuela, but has been living in the U.S. since he was three years old and calls NYC his home. He is a former DACA recipient and proud member of the queer community. He is currently incarcerated at the Krome ICE Facility in Miami where he continues to fight for his release, as do we.
  • We co-organized and led the 2021 Queer Liberation March, which was attended by over 50,000 people. The QLM challenges corporate pride and reminds us how pride started, and it takes pride back to its roots. This march was organized by volunteers within the queer and trans community without sponsorship or corporations.
  • We hosted our second annual #LiberatingPride Popular Education, a vital conversation on the experiences, stories, and struggles of LGBTQ+ Immigrants and the ways that the global LGBTQIA+ community can work together towards the liberation of all. The recording can be found here with the passcode: 4gzM8#wZ
  • After years of organizing, Governor Murphy of New Jersey signed S3361/A5207 into law. This is a bill that prohibits all-new ICE contracts and renewal of old ones. This win wouldn’t have been possible without the effort of organizers and advocates from the @abolishice_nynj, @afscnewark, @njimmigrantjustice, @aclunj, @paxchristinj, and @queerdep, amongst many others.

STAFF AND MEMBER UPDATES

APPLY NOW: PART-TIME COMMUNITY ORGANIZER POSITION

  • We are currently hiring a part-time community organizer position to help shape our organizing work. BIPOC Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer, Transgender, and Gender Nonconforming folks directly impacted by ICE detention system and immigration system are strongly encouraged to apply. To apply: Submit your Resume with the Subject line “Organizer” to info@qdep.org
  • On March 7th, 2021, we lost one of our members, Faby Federick. Faby was an amazing and loving person. QDEP provided support to Faby while they were detained by ICE and continued to provide them with post-release support while they lived in NYC. Faby was active in QDEP’s Organizing Program and they participated in our 2020 Leadership Development Program for Trans Women, Queer Cis Women, and Gender Non-Conforming Immigrants. Faby was very committed to the fight for justice and liberation of all queer and trans immigrants incarcerated in the U.S. We were and are still deeply devastated by this loss.
  • We welcomed Eliza Petrie to our team. Eliza (she/her/ella) is a proud native New Yorker and passionate advocate for immigrant and LGBTQIA+ rights. She graduated from Trinity College (CT) in 2019 with a bachelor’s degrees in Human Rights and Hispanic Studies and a minor in Legal Studies, and spent the last two years working for a small nonprofit in the mid-Hudson Valley. There, she helped rural Spanish-speaking immigrants and asylum seekers access essential resources and services. Eliza joined QDEP in December 2021 as a Volunteer Manager, overseeing existing volunteer programs, as well as developing new ones to ensure that the organization can continue to support its growing community of members. In her free time, you can find her traveling, going on long walks in her neighborhood, and trying all the different delicious foods that NYC has to offer with the people she loves. 
  • We also welcomed Sam Polanco to our team. Sam Polanco (he/him) is a blogger and music lover from the Dominican Republic. He started as a member/volunteer with QDEP in 2019, answering the hotline, processing the intake forms of new members, following up on the requests from our members in and out of the detention centers, and translating documents into Spanish. Sam joined QDEP as a staff member in March 2021 as an Administrative Assistant to ensure a smooth run of QDEP’s office operations (in administration, bookkeeping, and communications). Sam loves working with people, and he feels that helping and providing relief to his LGBTQIA+ community is his purpose, as he believes that unity and knowledge make us stronger. In his free time, he loves listening to music, taking long walks, and sharing margaritas with loved ones.
  • On November 18th 2021, we had a  housewarming party to celebrate the opening of our new office. In March 2020 QDEP closed down our previous office and started working from home due to COVID-19. LGBTQIA+ immigrants have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. While our members were struggling, QDEP did all we could to show up for our community. We continued to support our members in NYC with our post-release services, as well as those who were still detained in life-threatening conditions. Members released from detention are trying to recover from the trauma they experienced in their country of origin, while in detention, and continue to experience once released. Not being able to meet in person during COVID-19 and build a community in person made it even harder for our new members to adapt to their lives in NYC and to start their healing process. Since reopening our new office on October 1st 2021, our members have shown up in numbers to continue to build community and reconnect with each other. Our member meetings, pen pal sessions, Leadership Development Program, and other activities have returned to being fully in person, with COVID-19 precautions in place. 
  • QDEP is so thankful to all of our supporters and to the people that keep fighting for justice and liberation, especially during these difficult times. The impact you have rippled through our community is in more ways than you can even imagine. LGBTQIA+ immigrant lives improve every day thanks to your collective support.

2022 PLANS

Direct Services

Our plan for 2022 within the Direct Services Program is to start a peer-support program.  The goal of it is to create a space where LGBTQIA+ folks who are directly impacted by immigration systems, and have experience living in NYC and navigating systems (such as HRA and HASA benefits, MTA system etc.) can provide support to newly arrived queer and trans immigrants. The program will include a period of training to prepare our peer-supporters for their role. Once the program starts, we will have regular supervision sessions and monthly support meetings to hold space for discussions on primary and secondary trauma, issues that arise when arriving in NYC, and also the successes and joy that peer-support work can bring. 

We will also continue our post-release support and border and detention programs. We hope that we will be able to grow our team and capacity to provide support to even more queer and trans immigrants in 2022.

Community Organizing

Our organizing goal for 2022 is to continue to strengthen our organizing model, expand our membership base, and work with members to support the AbolishICE NY/NJ coalition, which supports the Dignity Not Detention Act and the #FreeThemAll campaign, and lead campaigns of their choosing. We will continue to center our directly impacted members in all facets of our organizing work and keep up our efforts on individual deportation defense campaigns. We will also continue to coach our member-led organizing committee. With support from our organizing committee, we will further develop political education workshops to deepen both our membership and organizational political understanding.