Gender JUST believes that comprehensive immigration reform is a critically queer struggle and has been involved in several citywide efforts to stop deportations and immigration raids.  Gender JUST's immigrant-led immigration positions stand firmly against Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) and other LGBTQ efforts that stop short of comprehensive immigration reform. 

Guiding Principles

• The dominant structures of labor and immigration policies are oppressive towards immigrants, particularly LGBTQ immigrants.

• Gender, race, ethnicity, language, sexuality, and national origin are particularly significant identities that influence the opportunities of LGBTQ immigrants.

• Queer individuals of privilege, members of both immigrant and non-immigrant communities, can benefit from examining critically the politics and ideologies surrounding LGBTQ immigrants.

• The effects of rampant globalization and an unfair economy that favors profits for a few and depresses the wages of the many have harmful effects upon local and international labor forces. To demand that Americans choose between immigrant and domestic labor is to posit a false choice. A more equitable solution is to demand better working conditions and a fair living for all and to call for ending the growth of unfair US economic policies worldwide.

                                   Issues Impacting LGBTQ Immigrants

• Policing the Border, such as the proposal for a national wall along the 20,000 mile border between US and Mexico, is economically unsustainable and undermines programs like education and public assistance.

• Family Definitions under current immigration law implies a heterosexual family structure and leaves out most of the family structures in which LGBTQ immigrants live.

• Asylum Applications are restrictive and can only be made during the first year after entering the country, even though this is the only way for some of the most vulnerable LGBTQ immigrants to legalize their status.

• Harboring is the act of protecting or in any way assisting an undocumented immigrant and provisions target individuals and organizations that provide assistance to undocumented immigrants with financial aid, food, housing, and other basic social services.

• Guest Worker Programs create a two-tiered system that divides our communities into “better” and “worse” immigrants depending on how long they have been in the country and what kind of work they do.

"No Deportations!" (Outside) City Hall Rally to Stop the Deportation of Rigo Padilla - Nov 13, 2009

We Demand

• Support legalization for all immigrants, including undocumented immigrants. End the criminalization of immigrants by preventing the expansion of deportation criteria and increased penalties for minor offenses.

• Enact genuinely progressive immigration legislation at the state level that respects the human rights of immigrants.

• End the one year deadline for applying for asylum

• End the heightened policing and criminalization of immigrant communities, including the increased militarization of the border, the construction of any wall around the US-Mexico border, and/or the use of city and state government agencies to enforce federal immigration law.

• End the indefinite and mandatory detention of non-citizens and ensure the safety and self-determination of all people, regardless of national origin, religion, race, gender or sexuality.  Detention is particularly harsh for LGBTQ and HIV positive detainees.

• Strengthen labor laws and protections for all workers, native and foreign born, and end guest worker proposals that would continue the exploitation of many low-wage workers.

• End penalties imposed upon service providers and family members of undocumented immigrants.

• Repeal the Real I.D. Act, which creates a national database and makes it more difficult to obtain legal identification, thus causing hardship for thousands of people who cannot obtain identification. In addition, we demand that the Federal government not penalize states that opt out of the Real I.D. Act.

• Eliminate the high-income requirements for immigrant sponsors.

• Eliminate the 3 and 10-year bars for so-called unlawful presence.

• Support efforts to create and affirm the broader definitions of family and kinship patterns in which LGBTQ people already live.

For more information, contact info@genderjust.org.