LGBTQ immigrant activists block road outside trans detention center

Several badass LGBTQ and immigrant rights leaders blocked the intersection in front of a detention center in Santa Ana today. They’re demanding an end to our abusive detention and deportation system, starting with the release of undocumented transgender women held within the facility. Via #Not1More:

They cite the experience of formerly detained protest participants as well as recent reports exposing the epidemic of violence against undocumented Trans detainees under Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s watch in detention centers around the country as a crisis that needs immediate action. Rogue practices on behalf of ICE include incarcerating Trans women at all male facilities where they are subject to sexual assault and harassment, denying them hormone medication, and through deportation that returns them to situations of likely violence that often spurred their original journey to the US for safety.

Isa Noyola, who is risking arrest, says: “For too long our communities have been experiencing oppression through its immigration system. With each presidential administration advocates rally and push for reform measures and some lose sight of the broader vision for liberation. We are here today to uplift these broader demands of liberation; an end to detention centers and the criminalization of our transgender, gender non-conforming and queer communities. Trans women today are at the frontlines and showing up for our communities because our lives are on the line.”

As Olga Tomchin, a fellow the Transgender Law Center, explained in the Feministing Five, “Immigration detention and the deportation machine are really horrible for everyone, but they impact transgender people, particularly transgender women, in disproportionate and horrific ways.”

Check out more photos from the action here.