For Media Contact, further inquiries or interview requests, please contact:
Uchechukwu Onwa – uchechukwu@qdep.org
Dzana Ashworth – dzana.ashworth@gmail.com
Mohamed Q. Amin – Mohamed@CaribbeanEqualityProject.org
For Immediate Release
New York City, NY | March 16, 2021
We must hold President Joseph R. Biden and Vice President Kamala Devi Harris accountable for their promises of advancing LGBTQ+ equality, including protections for LGBTQ+ immigrants and asylum seekers.
Join us on Friday, March 19th at 5:00 PM EST at FOLEY SQUARE for a rally and march to demand the Biden-Harris administration keep its promises on the campaign trail to protect Black and all Queer and Trans asylum seekers.
On January 22nd, in response to the Biden-Harris administration’s proposed immigration legislation, we called upon President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to execute the following within the first 100 days of taking office:
- End the detention of Black queer and trans immigrants and protect trans and queer Muslim migrants
- Defund the police and begin the transition away from the prison industrial complex
- Decriminalize border crossing, abolish ICE and #FreeThemAll from ICE facilities as a response to COVID-19 and its threat to people who are currently incarcerated
- Empower and provide access to healthcare for LGBTQ+ immigrants through universal health care, education reform, and include LGBTQ+ immigrants in the Biden-Harris administration Path to Citizenship policy for 11 million undocumented people
- Prioritize education that uplifts the lives of trans women of color — provide homes/resources/job opportunities, programs and education around trans identity, challenge religious and/or hateful speech etc., rather than only punishing the aftermath
- Strengthen asylum laws, so that LGBTQ+ migrants who are fleeing discrimination and violence can get refuge in the US
- Increase funding for youth education, support state-level legislation around LGBTQ+ rights, pronouns, and encourage education in religious spaces around sexuality and gender
On February 4th, in his remarks on America’s place in the world, President Biden specifically promised that he will protect LGBTQ refugees and asylum seekers at home and abroad, and said he will increase the number of refugees admitted.
However, in the months since that time, the administration has been sending mixed messages to our communities. While the Biden administration is attempting to speed up family border crossing processes, and recently introduced a eight-year path to citizenship that will reportedly eliminate certain restrictions, the administration has also reopened a child migrant facility in Texas, and maintains full capacity detention centers amidst a global pandemic.
Uchechukwu Onwa, QDEP’s Organizing Director – This action is very important and critical at this point because queer and trans immigrant/asylum seekers have been disproportionately impacted by the immigration system but are often erased in the narratives, it is important to make our demands because we are impacted by the issues are we are the best to create the change we want to see.
Iman Le Caire, of TransEmigrate – I want to remind Biden and Harris what the word Asylum means. I want to remind them that Asylum does not mean detention. It does not mean abuse. It does not mean degradation. Asylum means protection. Asylum means allowing people to live, to prosper. Asylum means keeping promises the richest country in the world made to people from the entire world.
Mohamed Q. Amin, Executive Director of Caribbean Equality Project – We must, and we will hold the Biden-Harris administration accountable for its promises to protect all immigrants, including Black and Brown Queer and Trans asylum seekers. LGBTQ immigrants have always been essential. We are not disposable. We deserve to live in an equitable America and access services without the fear of violence and discrimination. We deserve immigration reform to affirm our rights. We deserve legal protections and not performativity and tokenization. We deserve love and family support. We deserve to live. We deserve to breathe. We deserve justice. We deserve equity and liberation.
Reginald Brown, VocalNYC – Free the family, children do not belong in cages.
Regardless of the “goal” of new legislation, accelerated crossing, and supposedly necessary facilities, the entire U.S. immigration system continues to be a for-profit entity that thrives off the despair and criminalization of immigrants.
We uplift and amplify our ongoing demands and ask that the Biden-Harris administration work with local officials and other branches of the U.S. government to ensure that our communities are no longer forced to endure the trauma of detention or the limbo and uncertainty of stalled asylum processes. We know that oftentimes elected officials make promises, and we will hold President Biden to his word by letting his administration know exactly what kind of protections we need. We are the true experts on this system and what it puts us through and we would urge President Biden take immediate action to prevent further harm and loss.
Friday’s rally is dedicated to Faby Federick, a trans woman who died on March 7, 2021. After years of exploitation in Costa Rica, Faby fled to America in search of safety and protection only to face homelessness in Los Angeles, a year in an ICE detention camp, and then a global pandemic, housing insecurity and health problems shortly after arriving in NY. Despite all these obstacles and more, Faby remained hopeful and determined, and managed to learn English, prepare for the high school equivalency exam, befriend many and train as a chef. Faby had big dreams of higher education, making political change and starting a family. Tragically, this has all been cut short.
On Friday, we will rally and march to remember Faby Federick and manifest a better, safer world for our trans siblings and loved ones.
Organizations: Queer Detainee Empowerment Project (QDEP), Caribbean Equality Project (CEP), Iman Le Caire of TransEmigrate, and Voices Of Community Activists & Leaders (VOCAL-NY)
Co-Hosts: Jackie Cox from Season 12 of Rupaul’s Drag Race, Iman Le Caire of TransEmigrate, and Mohamed Q. Amin, Founder of Caribbean Equality Project
Speakers: Uche Onwa (QDEP), Edinson Calderon (QDEP), Mayte Castillo Ramos (QDEP), Liaam Winslet (CIT), Tiffany Munroe (CEP), Brian Moore (CEP), Iman Le Caire (TransEmigrate), Mohamed Q. Amin (CEP)
Facebook Event Link: https://fb.me/e/1rnNj0uSc
Graphics by @elhna
Action endorsed by:
Colectivo Intercultural TRANSgrediendo, Reclaim Pride Coalition, Rise and Resist, CosechaNYC, Lambda Legal, Impulse Group NYC, Black Legal Observer Coalition, Impulse Group NYC, Families For Freedom, Freedom For Immigrants
