On the heels of the introduction of a new immigration proposal in the House of Representatives and Saturday’s National Day of Dignity and Respect, our partners at the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) have released a new report: Our Moment for Reform: Immigration and Transgender People. 

The report identifies issues facing transgender immigrants and illuminates how the failings of the current immigration system affect transgender immigrants and their families.

Of the 267,000 undocumented LGBT people living in the U.S. today, an estimated 15,000 to 50,000 are transgender. This estimate does not include undocumented transgender youth or transgender U.S. citizens and legal residents with undocumented family members.

Undocumented transgender people face numerous obstacles as a result of both transphobia and their undocumented status. Some of these include :

• Undocumented transgender people face employment insecurity, which results in high levels of poverty and homelessness.
• Undocumented transgender people are far more likely than transgender U.S. citizens to live in poverty.
• Undocumented transgender immigrants are also more likely to lack access to public services, particularly healthcare; they experience a high rate of being uninsured, and those that are able to obtain coverage regularly face discrimination when seeking treatment.

Proponents of immigration reform have recognized that transgender individuals face unique challenges in our immigration system. Mary Meg McCarthy, the Executive Director of the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), has recognized that transgender immigrants are particularly susceptible to the abuses of the immigration process:

“Passing an immigration law that respects human rights for all people remains critical to sexual minority immigrants, who are among the most vulnerable in the face of our current broken immigration system . . . Congress has an opportunity with immigration reform to improve access to justice for all immigrants, regardless of sexual orientation, gender, or any other characteristic.”

For transgender and non-transgender immigrants alike, Congress needs to fix our broken immigration system. Our Moment for Reform: Immigration and Transgender People calls for comprehensive immigration reform that will:

• Create a fair and realistic pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants, including tens of thousands of transgender people and their loved ones.
• Incorporate the DREAM Act, allowing young trans immigrants who were raised in the U.S. to remain here and contribute their talents and education to our society.
• Ensure that all families are protected under immigration law.
• Repeal the one-year asylum deadline, allowing trans immigrants to take advantage of their right to seek asylum and avoid returning to countries where they will be persecuted and subject to violence.
• Reduce and reform detention to stamp out abuse, mistreatment, and the overuse of solitary confinement, especially regarding those who are targeted because of their gender identity.
• Reform and refocus enforcement efforts in order to eliminate discriminatory profiling, maintain trust in local law enforcement, and ensure due process.
• Remove or reform current inadmissibility grounds for minor offenses and non-offenses that disproportionately affect transgender immigrants.
• Protect worker privacy in employment verification systems to ensure that these systems do not become vehicles for discrimination or violence against transgender immigrants.

At the Federation, we’re standing with NCTE and thousands of others in the LGBT movement to continue to call on members of Congress to move reform forward. With our partners, we will monitor the bill’s progress to ensure that it addresses the real needs of LGBT immigrants and their loved ones.

Download the report from NCTE here: Our Moment for Reform: Immigration and Transgender People.