Washington, D.C. — A new column published by the Center for American Progress on Thursday provides new data indicating that LGBTQ recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) live in a heightened state of fear of deportation and detention under the Trump presidency and need the protections provided by DACA.
A recent survey from the Center for American Progress; the U.S. Immigration Policy Center at the University of California, San Diego; United We Dream; and the National Immigration Law Center found that an overwhelming majority—80 percent—of LGBT DACA recipients would fear for their own physical safety or the physical safety of their families in their country of birth. Three in 4 worry about the quality of health care, and roughly half worry about food insecurity and homelessness.
The uncertainty of the DACA program’s future is also constantly on the minds of LGBTQ recipients. Large majorities say they worry about their own potential detention or deportation at least once a day, and 74 percent say they think about “a family member being detained in an immigration detention facility” once a day or more.
“Given what we know about the extreme risk LGBTQ people face in detention and how unsafe much of the world is for LGBTQ people, it is not surprising that LGBTQ DACA recipients expressed such strong fears of detention and deportation,” said Sharita Gruberg, director of policy for the LGBT Research and Communications Project at CAP. “The Trump administration’s attempt to revoke the program’s protections after giving people the opportunity to live and thrive openly in the only country they’ve ever known is unspeakably cruel. These findings make clear just how much is at stake as DACA heads to the Supreme Court.”
Click here to read: “LGBTQ Dreamers Fear Detention and Deportation and Need DACA’s Protections” by Sharita Gruberg, Laura E. Durso, and Tom K. Wong
For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Adam Peck at [email protected] or 202-741-6363.