In his first weeks in office, President Trump issued a series of executive actions related to immigration. These included a set of executive orders that declared a national emergency at the Southern border, attempted to revoke birthright citizenship, ended humanitarian parole for asylum seekers, took actions against sanctuary cities, and allowed ICE officers to conduct raids in doctors’ offices, churches, and schools.
A new brief from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law finds that up to 3% of non-U.S. citizens living in the U.S., or 640,000 people, identify as LGBT. This includes as many as 288,000 who are undocumented and likely to be among the first affected by President Trump’s immigration policies.
Some immigrants arrive in the U.S. fleeing persecution based on sexual orientation or gender identity in their home countries. A previous study by the Williams Institute analyzed fear claims reviewed by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and found that 1.2% of credible fear interviews and 1.7% of reasonable fear interviews were related to LGBT status.
While these makes up a very small percentage of all asylum interviews, almost all claims based on LGBT status (98%) were determined by immigration officials to present a credible or reasonable fear of persecution or torture.
“Consensual same-sex relations are criminalized in 61 countries around the world, and in at least seven of those, they can be punishable by death,” said lead author Andrew Flores, Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Williams Institute. “Policies leading to increased deportations could place LGBT individuals from countries that criminalize their identities and relationships at risk of violence and unsafe conditions.”
Over one-third of LGBT immigrants in the U.S. live in California. Williams Institute research shows that California’s undocumented LGBT immigrants from Latin America tend to be older, have lower levels of education, possess fewer economic resources, are more frequently uninsured, and are more likely to go without routine health care compared to U.S.-born LGBT citizens. Meanwhile, among Asian undocumented LGBT immigrants in the state, 86% are employed, yet 31% live below 200% of the federal poverty level.
“Increases in deportations and racialized policing adversely affect the health and well-being of already vulnerable immigrant communities,” said study author Laurel D. Sprague, Research Director at the Williams Institute. “Policies that permit ICE to arrest immigrants in sensitive locations such as churches and schools will likely result in greater disparities in well-being and further avoidance of schools, medical facilities, and police protection services.”