COLLECTIVE STATEMENT
Trans and queer people of color have been and continue to be the vanguard of every major movement for social justice. While trans and queer people of color have acted as a moral compass for social movements, their stories and their leadership are pushed to the margins. Moreover, anti-blackness within the LGBTQ+ and immigrant justice movements have led to marginalization and attempted erasure of Black communities. This is especially true for Black migrants broadly and Black LGBTQ+ migrants specifically.
About the Rally & March:
We gathered in New Mexico to uplift and center queer and trans migrants in the movement to #AbolishICE. Roxsana Hernandez, a transgender woman from Honduras, was detained at Cibola County Correctional Center and died while in custody. Currently, Udoka Nweke, a gay Nigerian migrant, is in Adelanto Detention Center, and all he’s seen of the United States is a jail cell. The rampant physical and brutal treatment that queer and trans migrants face behind bars can be fatal, particularly for people living with HIV. Our demands today are clear: End detention, stop deportations, and decry the the anti-Black racism that renders Black lives, including Black migrant lives, disposable.
Demands:
We demand an end to the detention and deportation of trans and queer migrants as well as the criminalization of Black people.
We call on LGBTQ+ and immigrant rights movement to decry anti-Blackness and engage in active solidarity with Black LGBTQ+ migrants by uplifting our presence and leadership.
We demand the release of all trans people currently detained at all immigration detention facilities around the country, including right here at the Cibola County Correctional Facility.
We demand an end to all forms of immigration detention and deportation.
We call for the complete abolishment of ICE and prisons.
#AbolishICE must also mean #AbolishPolice. Our demands reflect our belief that whether it is an immigration prison or a county jail, people are being put in cages and they are dying in them. It is the ugly truth that we must reckon with in order to achieve justice for migrants, particularly Black migrants who are disproportionately targeted by all types of law enforcement.
We demand justice for Roxsana Hernandez and other trans and queer people who have died in ICE custody. We hold all people, companies and agencies responsible for her care and safety responsible for Roxsana's death and we call for them to be held accountable immediately.
Today, we are thinking about Udoka Nweke, whose mental health is deteriorating and is currently in Adelanto Detention Center. All he has seen of the United States is a jail cell. Black migrants and Black queer and trans migrants face a U.S. legal system steeped in anti-Black racism and their voices need to be heard.
We demand an end to all detention. Queer and trans migrants in detention are inhumanely denied life-saving medical care, including mental health care, transition-related care, and treatment for people living with HIV.
# # #