By Jaan Williams
I met Pri in college, when I had just figured out that I was a transgender man and hadn’t come out to anyone yet. I didn't feel ready for a relationship at that point but she was so amazing that a few weeks later we were dating and now we’ve been together for seven and a half years.
Spending time with Pri is my favorite thing in the entire world and I am grateful to be with her every single day. Throughout our entire relationship we have had to face the highly stressful experience of navigating the labyrinthine immigration system. Pri came to the U.S. from India with a student visa and every year and a half, we have to go through the same process of applying for a visa and then waiting to learn whether the government will allow us to stay together or force Pri to return to her home country. Because I am transgender I am unable to sponsor Pri for a spousal visa; she has had to apply for various student and work visas over the past seven years. The last time was especially rough. When we finally heard the news, we hugged, kissed, and sat down on the bed. But after a few moments of joy, all I could feel was anger. Even as an American citizen I was forced to play this excruciating waiting game—there was nothing that I could do to save my family simply because I am transgender.
Luckily I was able to update the gender marker on my identification and marry the love of my life in front of our friends and family. And more recently, with the removal of Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, same-sex binational couples--including couples like ours that are perceived to be same-sex relationships--can now sponsor each other for citizenship. Today, 28,500 same-sex bi-national couples no longer have to live in fear of the future and NCTE had an important role in achieving this milestone.
But our struggle is not the only struggle facing transgender people, our loved ones, and the immigration system. Today, Immigration and Customs Enforcement routinely detains undocumented transgender immigrants and places them in so called "protective custody," which sometimes includes solitary confinement. Prolonged solitary confinement, according to the United Nations, amounts to torture and should be banned for all detainees including transgender detainees whose average assignment in solitary confinement is 200 days compared to 20 days for non-transgender immigration detainees. In nearly all of these cases, the detainees qualify for asylum and could be released from detention. In other words, Immigration and Customs Enforcement needlessly holds transgender immigration detainees in dangerous solitary confinement without good reason.
Our country desperately needs immigration reform that includes significant changes to the treatment of transgender people in immigration detention. A part of NCTE’s Racial and Economic Justice Initiative is immigration reform advocacy, which takes advantage of opportunities to build capacity, and push out policy reforms that will help undocumented transgender immigrants both in and out of detention centers.
