NGOs Demand Release of Transgender and HIV-Positive People from Immigration Detention

New York, NY (June 16, 2021) — Today, a group of NGOs submitted a letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement demanding all detained people who are LGBTQ or living with HIV be released from immigration detention facilities immediately.

Immigration Equality’s Legal Director, Bridget Crawford, released the following statement:

“Throwing LGBTQ and HIV-positive asylum seekers into prison is cruel, expensive, and dangerous. For transgender and HIV-positive people, it can even be deadly. In response to years of consistently documented abuses against the community, the government has implemented ineffective half-measures that have utterly failed. That is why we have demanded that DHS release all transgender and HIV positive-people immediately. No one should ever be locked into prison because they fled persecution based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, or HIV status. Doing so during a pandemic is a human rights atrocity.”