Center Blog

This week our Director of Center Wellness Andres Hoyos, joined two Center clients in testifying before New York City Council’s Committee on Immigration. The legislative body was specifically looking into how NYC immigrants are treated in detention centers and considering two resolutions. 

One resolution “urges the United States Department of Homeland Security to investigate abuse allegations and take action to ensure the safety of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender immigrants in the custody of the United States Department of Homeland Security.” The other “calls upon the 112^th United States Congress to pass, and the President to sign, the Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act (H.R. 933), to reform immigration detention procedures and help ensure more just detention policies and procedures.”

Hoyos pointed out the often brutal conditions facing LGBT immigrants in custody:

The LGBT immigrants that seek services at the Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Transgender Community Center tell us stories of the abuse they have suffered at detention centers. Their complaints span from verbal abuse, to excessive force, to sexual assault by fellow detainees and prison officers. Denial of adequate medical care is also widespread and includes medical treatment for detainees living with HIV, and hormone therapy for transgender immigrant detainees. The lack of enforceable regulations providing required care to LGBT immigrant detainees is obvious. Both, the federal and the local administrations have failed to adequately address LGBT immigration detention conditions.

Two clients we have served at the Center also testified about the poor treatment they encountered in detention centers.

Cecilia Gentili is a transgender immigrant from Argentina who faced both physical and verbal abuse in correctional facilities before she was ultimately granted asylum after being in this country for 10 years.

In January 2001 I came to the US from Argentina escaping from oppression, discrimination and stigma against transgender people. At that time I had already developed an unhealthy mechanism to cope with all the abuse experienced in my country of origin: drugs.

The uncertainties about my legal situation in this country, the very low self-esteem, and the inability to deal with my past didn’t help and my problem escalated.

I was arrested for drug possession four times and each arrest  was a very painful experience. Police officers made fun of me and I was verbally abused in the precincts. One time, before facing the judge, I was forced to have sex with an officer. When I tried to report it to my lawyer, she totally overlooked it and talked me into “taking care of getting me released,” instead.

After my last arrest I was sent to Rikers Island, where things did not go any better. A transgender woman already in the process of transition, I was placed with men and experienced physical and verbal abuse by other inmates that was absolutely ignored by the guards. It seemed more like an amusement for them.  I also received no treatment for heroine withdrawals for several days.

During those days my legal situation came up and I was sent to the Immigration Detention Center on Varick Street in Manhattan. I was put in isolation. My emotions and mental state where severely compromised.

Luckily Ms. Gentili has been able to overcome the immense obstacles she faced, but many LGBT immigrants are not as fortunate.  She urged the the City Council committee not to forget her harrowing story.

Another Center client, David Williams relayed the poor conditions he encountered at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility (BFDF), in Batavia, New York

There was inadequate rationing of clothing and hygiene supplies; poor quality food; constant toilet privacy violations; ‘double bunking’ with newly sentenced or pending sentencing federal prisoners (who usually started violent fights); freezing cold water in the showers; no proper medical treatment or availability; and cell blocks that contained segregated prisoners who required round the clock transport back and forth to their cells.

During his testimony Andres Hoyos gave the committee his recommendations for fixing the current system:

1.    Provide funding for awareness campaigns that inform LGBT immigrants about their rights and connect them to services as soon as they arrive in the United States.

2.    Ensure that voices of LGBT immigrants are heard within the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA). Encourage the creation of a LGBT immigrant committee within the MOIA whose job will be to ensure that all literature created by the MOIA is inclusive of LGBT immigrants.

3.    Assist the Center in expanding funding opportunities that will address the need for continued emotional support services and advocacy for LGBT immigrants at the Center.

4.    Enact and enforce protocols that take in consideration and safeguard the emotional and physical well being of the LGBT immigrants.

5.    Establish collaborations with community based organizations and other agencies to expand the pool of options beyond detention centers. These options should ensure that immigrants stay within the geographical area where he/she is based and not removed out of state as is currently the case in many instances.

6.    Establish collaborations with community based organizations and other agencies to increase education among the immigrant community about their rights,  and alternatives to detention, how to file complains and who can advocate on their behalf regarding any irregularity that may happen in while under the care of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

7.    Establish clear protocols as to how the immigrants that are under the care of DHS will have access to HIV medications, anti-depressants, hormone treatment and other mental or physical needs.

8.    Solitary confinement should never be the first option for LGBT immigrants but an alternative to detention, since this causes severe negative emotional impacts.

The Center is thankful that the City Council had this vital conversation and looks forward to collaborating to develop new programs that address the needs of the LGBT immigrant community.

Cheryl Boyce Taylor

The evening started with a series of reading and intermittent singing from poet Rajiv Mohabir. He conveyed a powerful and thematic poem about coming out to his grandmother in a poem titled, “You can’t stop a river from running”. He then carried his “river” theme through space and time, as he took his audience from rivers in India, the United Kingdom, Florida, and finally the Hudson River, each river marking a rite of passage in his life.

Then poet Thereece Irradiance Thomas took the audience through a powerful journey of confidence, defiance, and unity. Her poem “Assumption” charged the audience to be empowered, while her poem “Kept Illusion” called for strength and unity. By integrating a streak of sexuality, a hint of oppression, and hue of race, Thereece Irradiance Thomas uses her poems as a tool to awaken and strengthen those who are oppressed and victimized.

Poet and fiction writer Anton Nimblett colored the evening with a theme we are all very familiar with: desire. He read an excerpt from his fiction novel “Sections of an orange,” where the narrator is posing half-naked for a barber who is also a photographer. Anton Nimblett gives such vivid and detailed descriptions, one can actually feel every touch, every move, and every impulse of the narrator.

Then poet Ysanne K. Latchman brought a collection of experiences from her childhood through womanhood. Most striking of her reading was a poem titled “No thank you, I will pass,” where she shed light on a common experience for all New Yorkers: cooking smells. Her incandescent account of smelling her neighbor cooking bacalao reminds all of us that as New Yorkers, we experience cultures that are thousands of miles away, everyday.

And finally, poet Cheryl Boyce Taylor took the audience on a ride through her memory lane, from the day she left her home country to her experiences as an ex-patriot. She cleverly intertwines various themes about daily routines, internal struggles, and innocence in a seemingly complicated subject of nostalgia and identity. Her poem title “Piaco” illustrates a conflicted, yet curious child ready to embark on a new experience as she leaves her home country, while her poem “Reaching Trinidad” flash forwards decades later painting the experiences of a woman visiting her “home” country.

These five poets brought together a colorful array of experiences, feelings, and senses, all embodied in beautiful poems and works of art presented as a string of memories. As immigrants to this country and emigrants of their home lands, their writings carried an undertone of longing a time and space forever lost. Not only were they uprooted from their home countries,  they were also uprooted from their childhoods. In their works, one could feel equal parts of challenge and excitement in adjusting to a new environment, language, and customs, all of which influenced and shaped their experiences as queer immigrants.