Friends,
This weekend, thousands of immigration activists will gather in cities across the country to demand an end to the deportation of innocent people. Deportation tears communities and families apart, and can be extremely dangerous for the people we represent.
That’s why we stand with the April 5th National Day of Action and strongly encourage you to lend your voice by sharing our #Deported2Death graphics and messages through your social media.
As the legal director of Immigration Equality, I know that deportation has an especially devastating effect on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and HIV-positive people. Just ask Hernan, a 21-year-old gay man from Honduras. We filed his appeal last Wednesday and by Friday he had been deported. He is currently in hiding, afraid that gang members who assaulted him over 30 times for being gay will find him again.
When our clients fall victim to deportation, they are sent right back to the dangerous situations they were forced to flee in the first place. Immigration Equality represents clients who have been set on fire, slashed with machetes, and have suffered unimaginable torture. We know that deportation can be a death sentence for LGBT immigrants.
Even the threat of deportation is terrible for the LGBT community. Imagine living with the possibility of deportation, when you could disappear at any moment. Paa Kwesi lived in fear for 5 months at a detention center in California. The 28-year-old gay man, who was forced to flee Ghana after his partner was murdered, remembers waking up terrified that he would be sent back to the violence he struggled to escape. Getting deported to Ghana would mean arrest, a prison term of up to 25 years, and possibly death.
It’s time for a new approach because the consequences of deportation for LGBT immigrants can be dire. Join the thousands who will speak out this weekend.
Yours,
Aaron C. Morris
Legal Director
Immigration Equality
