Immigration is a hot-button issue, but often the intersection between the gay community and immigrants is overlooked. Chicago LGBTQ Immigrant Alliance ( CLIA ) held a town hall about the oft-neglected issue of the LGBT community and immigration on June 12.
Titled Points of Entry, the town hall featuring panelists that not only provided the basics regarding immigration issues for LGBT people and people with HIV/AIDS, but spoke about asylum based on sexual orientation and gender identity, the HIV ban and queer immigrants, and an gave overview of immigration reform.
Attorney Mathew Katz talked about the current state of immigration laws. He feels that the laws are 'ridiculous,' and in many ways reactionary, oppressive and unjust.
'The proposals out there are likely nauseating,' he added.
Katz provided a history of immigration reform, starting in 1990, when 'sexual deviation' was removed as a reason to deny an application for citizenship. Much of the current law is still behind the times, he said. For instance, although a post-op transgender individual can petition for benefits for his or her spouse, immigration law doesn't allow same-sex partners to petition for benefits for one another.
Attorney Jonathan Eoloff ( National Immigrant Justice Center ) specifically works with clients seeking asylum.
Those seeking asylum have to meet the definition of a refugee, and show a well-founded fear of persecution, likelihood that he or she will be persecuted if they return to their country and show the government can't to protect them.
Eoloff said that in 1994, former Attorney General Janet Reno, in a case regarding a gay Cuban man, set the precedent that LGBT people belong to a particular social group, which is one of the ways those seeking asylum can be persecuted according to U.S. law. Since then, there have been many, many cases regarding LGBT asylum seekers.
In regards to HIV-positive immigrants, local activist and CLIA member Yasmin Nair touched on the impact the HIV ban has on immigrants.
The U.S. prohibits HIV-positive immigrants from entering the States and requires HIV tests. The ban even applies to those who seek long-term residency and citizenship. According to Nair, both legal and non-legal immigrants are severely impacted by this ban.
Not only does it perpetuate the stigma of the disease by separating it from all other diseases, but forces those currently in the country ( documented and undocumented ) underground for fear their status will be revealed. Often, immigrants will not get tested, and won't go in for treatment if they do become HIV-positive.
'It increases the stigma, and creates a branch of people ghettoized and driven underground,' Nair said.
In addition, Nair says the U.S. has become alienated due to its Draconian policy. ( An international HIV/AIDS conference has not been held in the U.S. since 1990 ) . Other countries have no restrictions or do not require an HIV test. If they do, they will test the individuals to simply inform them of their status and set up necessary treatments.
The U.S. government spends an enormous amount of money each year to keep out roughly 500 HIV-positive immigrants, Nair said.
Nair, like many others in the room, feels that the gay community needs to add the HIV ban and other LGBT immigrant issues to its list of priorities. 'Both groups need to think of the intersections,' she said, adding that gay leaders need to push for a comprehensive immigration reform package.
'We have to see fights on all fronts,' Katz agreed. 'People need to join together across all sorts of boundaries. Without that, we don't win the fight.'
Yasmin Nair is a columnist and book reviewer for Windy City Times.
