Immigration Equality is a United States nonprofit organization founded in 1994. Based in New York, it both advocates for and directly represents LGBTQ and
HIV-positive
The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immun ...
people in the
immigration system.
The organization provides guidance and legal counsel for LGBTQ and HIV-positive immigrants, particularly those seeking
asylum
Asylum may refer to:
Types of asylum
* Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome
* Benevolent Asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute
* Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea
...
from countries where they face persecution. In 2017, it provided over $33 million in free legal services for low-income LGBTQ and HIV-positive immigrants. It wins 99% of its cases.
Direct legal representation and clients
Immigration Equality represents LGBTQ and HIV-positive immigrants seeking safety, fair treatment, and freedom in the United States. Its clients include asylum seekers,
binational couples and families, detained individuals, and undocumented people.
In over 80 countries worldwide, it is
a crime to be LGBT. Due to their sexual orientation, gender identity, or HIV status, clients are persecuted in their country of origin and flee to the United States.
The fear of further abuse, torture, and death prevents their return. Without legal immigration status in the United States, they can be detained by immigration officials and deported.
Immigration Equality helps clients to win asylum or release from detention so they can live safely and freely in the United States.
Clients detained in detention centers have reported abuse by fellow detainees and guards. They often report spending a majority of their time isolated in solitary confinement, particularly transgender woman who are housed in male facilities.
Historically, Immigration Equality's largest source of clients has come from
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
, with
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
trailing right behind. In 2013, with
Russia's "anti-gay propaganda" law, the organization's number of Russian clients surpassed the number of Mexican clients.
Over the last 20 years, the largest percentage of Immigration Equality clients has come from the Caribbean and Latin America. As more countries worldwide pass anti-LGBTQ laws, the number of individuals coming to Immigration Equality from Russia, the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa has increased.
Immigration Equality has a 98% win rate for their clients in asylum offices and immigration court.
In 2013, the organization represented approximately 354 clients. Immigration Equality maintains a list of LGBTQ and HIV-competent private immigration attorneys to provide legal representation for those who contact them. They also provide technical assistance to attorneys who are working on sexual orientation, transgender identity, or HIV status-based right of asylum applications, or other immigration applications where the client's LGBTQ or HIV-positive identity is at issue in the case.
Advocacy efforts
Immigration Equality advocates for client-driven policy priorities such as creating comprehensive immigration reform, implementing LGBTQ-inclusive legislation and policy, and asking for accountability from decision-makers in Washington, D.C.
According to Immigration Equality, the following policy changes are still needed to advance the LGBTQ immigrant community: stop deporting LGBTQ immigrants, repeal the arbitrary one-year filing deadline for asylum, include LGBTQ people in administrative relief and immigration reform, improve conditions in immigration detention, increase the use of alternatives to detention, decrease asylum backlogs by hiring the appropriate number of officials, recognize 'families' to include those without access to marriage equality, and utilize group-based protection mechanisms for LGBTQ people trapped abroad.
In September 2014, Immigration Equality rallied before the White House to call for immediate action after President Obama announced a delay on his executive action on immigration. Members of the organization traveled to D.C. with clients to tell their stories and protest in the offices of House representatives, including
John Boehner
John Andrew Boehner ( ; born , 1949) is an American retired politician who served as the 53rd speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2011 to 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he served 13 terms as the U.S. represe ...
(R-Ohio), House Judiciary Committee Chair Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), but they refused to meet with the activists.
History
The organization was founded in 1994 by Suzanne Goldberg, Noemi Masliah, and Lavi Soloway as the Lesbian and Gay Immigration Rights Task Force.
In 2004, the organization officially changed their name to Immigration Equality.
In May 2006, in conjunction with the
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
, Immigration Equality released their report - "Family, Unvalued: Discrimination, Denial, and the Fate of Binational Same-Sex Couples under United States Law", which was based on research conducted from 2003–2006 to "emphasize and spotlight the plight of same-sex binational couples".
[Report spotlights GLBT immigration challenges: House bill seeks to allow U.S. citizens to sponsor foreign same-sex partners](_blank)
Anthony Baldman, May 18, 2006, ''Gay and Lesbian Times''. The report documented the cases of couples who hid the fact they were in a same-sex relationship when reporting to the 2000 U.S. Census because they feared anti-LGBTQ bias in the immigration process, as well as cases of couples who failed to participate in the census because their foreign partners were living in the United States illegally.
The report also cited couples who were affected by U.S. immigration policies that overlook same-sex bi-national couples completely and outlined facts about the U.S.'s current visa and immigration system explaining how LGBTQ people either fit into the system or do not.
Immigration Equality campaigned to lift the ban on travel and immigration into the U.S. on the part of those with HIV, which had been enacted in 1987 and strengthened in 1993. In July 2008, President George Bush signed legislation to permit the lifting of the ban. President Obama announced in October 2009 that the
Department Health and Human Services was publishing rules that would end the 22-year ban by removing HIV from list of "communicable disease
of public health significance" that the Immigration Service relied on. The ban was lifted in January 2010.
In 2008, Immigration Equality opened their Washington, DC office, shortly after Congress repealed the HIV immigration and travel ban, fulfilling one of the organization's founding objectives. During the same year, Immigration Equality, in conjunction with the Transgender Law Center, drafted Immigration Law and the Transgender Client, a manual published by the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the first LGBTQ publication that the latter organization has issued.
8Immigration Equality also won over fifty
political asylum
The right of asylum (sometimes called right of political asylum; ) is an ancient juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, like a second country or another enti ...
cases where the potential deportees feared persecution if returned to their homeland.
In 2009, the group created the Immigration Equality Action Fund, a 501(c)4 organization devoted to federal lobbying.
In 2015, Immigration Equality provided more than 32,704 hours of free legal service by their legal team and partners. In October 2016, Immigration Equality welcomed their new executive director Aaron C. Morris.
In May 2015, Immigration Equality's website was selected for inclusion in the Library of Congress' historic collection of Internet materials related to public policy topics.
Uniting American Families Act
Immigration Equality has been the principal advocate for the
Uniting American Families Act (UAFA, , ).
[Immigration equality picks up more Congressional support: Senate and House add co-sponsors, some couples are still skeptical](_blank)
Jessica Carreras, October 2, 2008 (Issue 1640), ''Between The Lines News''. They have worked to introduce the legislation, educated Congress members about the need for passage and documented Americans and their families affected by the issue.
Immigration Equality has been lobbying for the act since 2000 which would allow "same-sex 'permanent partners' to present documents – joint tax filings, property records, bank accounts – to prove their relationship and petition for a green card" the same as heterosexual couples are able to do.
The group placed a warning notice regarding same-sex marriage on the group's website as getting married might actually be more problematic for bi-national same-sex couples.
[Abby Schwartz (April 29, 2004). "Love, borders and the INS: You love someone who’s not an American citizen. You can’t get married. You can’t get a visa. You can’t change citizenship. Is there anything you can you do?", ''Gay and Lesbian Times''.] John Nechman, co-chair of Immigration Equality explained ",
ny of the problems related to legal civil-unions have to do with "intent" under the law. "If they go and marry, when that person goes to apply for an adjustment of status or a new F1 visa, there is going to be a question as to whether he is married. And if he puts down no, he has just committed fraud. If he puts down yes, they're going to want to know info about the spouse; and if he's applying for a new F1, that means temporary intent. By putting down a U.S. spouse, that means that you're intending to stay."
In July 2007 executive director Rachel B. Tiven was interviewed on
Fox News
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
' political talkshow ''
The O'Reilly Factor
''The O'Reilly Factor'' (originally titled ''The O'Reilly Report'' and also known as ''The Factor'') is an American cable television news and talk show. ''The O'Reilly Factor'' first aired in the United States on Fox News Channel on October 7 ...
'' about the legislation.
[Video clip of Fox News'](_blank)
, ''The O'Reilly Factor
''The O'Reilly Factor'' (originally titled ''The O'Reilly Report'' and also known as ''The Factor'') is an American cable television news and talk show. ''The O'Reilly Factor'' first aired in the United States on Fox News Channel on October 7 ...
'' July 18, 2007.
There are currently 115 cosponsors of this legislation in the House of Representatives and 20 cosponsors in the Senate.
Represented by Immigration Equality,
Lambda Legal
Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, better known as Lambda Legal, is an American civil rights organization that focuses on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities as well as people living with HIV/ AIDS ( PWAs) through i ...
and law firm
Morgan Lewis & Bockius
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP is an American multinational law firm with approximately 2,200 legal professionals in 31 offices across North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Mergers with other law firms stimulated global growth and led to ...
,
in October 2020, the
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...
withdrew its appeal of the verdict in ''Kiviti v. Pompeo'', and declined to appeal ''Mize-Gregg v. Pompeo''. Federal district courts ruled the State Department’s refusal to recognize children born oversees to married same-sex, American citizen couples as U.S. citizens to be unlawful in both cases.
See also
HIV travel restrictions: WWW.PLHIV.ORG
* President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
The United States President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is a United States governmental initiative to address the global HIV/AIDS epidemic and help save the lives of those suffering from the disease. Launched by U.S. President Geo ...
References
External links
Official web site
{{Immigration to the United States
Organizations established in 1994
Immigration and LGBT topics
Immigrant rights organizations in the United States
LGBT political advocacy groups in the United States
Refugee aid organizations in the United States
1994 establishments in the United States