Migration, Refugees & the Politics of Sanctuary
WEEK 9: “NO BAN, NO WALL, HEALTHCARE FOR ALL”
MAY 11, 2018
For Transgender Immigrants Seeking Safety, Asylum Can Mean Life or Death, and More
How Prerequisites for Medicaid Amplify the Consequences of Transgender Immigrants’ Asylum Decisions (Link / Archive)
Image from Vice News, “Advocates Hail US Court Decision to Grant Undocumented Transgender Immigrant Asylum”
Almost every single transgender person has at one point asked themselves,
Do I pass? Do other people perceive me as my correct gender? Can I walk around in broad daylight being perceived as cisgender?
Transgender people often consider the concept of
“passing” to be problematic, because what other people perceive your gender to be does not define your gender. However you identify and present yourself, whether these “match” or not, is valid (not to mention “passing” does not account for identities which do not fit in the categories of man and woman). The goal is not to pass; it’s to be yourself.
Unfortunately, the reality is that many transgender people don’t have much of a choice but to prioritize passing. For them, passing is not a matter of identity, but a matter of safety. A mismatched identification card, a masculine legal name for a femme-presenting person, secondary sex characteristics that don’t match with one’s gender expression—all of these can lead to a transgender person being read by others as transgender, or “clocked,” as we call it, and there can be dire consequences.
Simply being perceived as transgender in this world is dangerous. Between January 1, 2008 and September 30, 2017,
2609 transgender and gender-diverse people were murdered (and those are the ones we know about). Of those murders, 2048 of them were in Central and South America. Many Latin American transgender people, particularly trans women, flee from their countries to the United States for fear of violence.
But the danger doesn’t end once they cross the border. The moment they set foot in the United States, the clock starts ticking: they have one year to apply for asylum. Once time runs out, they seriously risk a denied application and deportation to the very countries they were running from.
The U.S. allows individuals to claim asylum
if they have a well-founded fear of persecution by the government of their home country based on factors such as gender identity. In addition to a lawful immigration status, an asylee, or person granted asylum, may legally work, apply for a social security card, among other things. A significant benefit, especially for trans asylum seekers, is eligibility for Medicaid.
For many transgender people, transition is medically necessary. In fact, the only known way to alleviate dysphoria, or distress experienced from being assigned a gender at birth that does not match one’s identity, is transition. Affordable health care gives trans people a path to medical and legal transition. It can mean access to life-saving hormone replacement therapy and gender-affirming surgeries. It can also mean access to a medical certification of gender transition, one of the ways to update the gender marker of immigrant identity documents in the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
In order to be eligible for Medicaid coverage,
“qualifying non-citizens” have a 5 year waiting period, unless they are or once were refugees or asylees. Even if they are eligible, not every state mandates transgender health coverage and care, and
some even explicitly exclude it.
Unfortunately, many don’t know they can get asylum for being trans, and, as a result, miss the one year deadline.
Those who either miss the asylum deadline or reside in states that explicitly exclude transgender related care find themselves at risk of not being able to afford medical transition or legal transition (and legal transition may be impossible for those who are undocumented). Without hormone replacement therapy and matching identification documents, there is more of a chance that they will be perceived as transgender by others.
“Passing” transgender people routinely face less violence than those who are considered to be visibly transgender.
Of the estimated 15,000 to 50,000 undocumented trans adults in the US,
39% have reported losing their jobs due to bias, in comparison to 26% of U.S. citizens, thus making it even more difficult to afford transition and further compounding the passing problem.
Even if processed for asylum, potential asylees,
particularly trans women of color, face discrimination and mistreatment in detention centers. Many are sexually assaulted, and
often can’t access life-saving hormone replacement therapy. Whether they are able to stay depends heavily on the education of the officers and judges handling their case and their ability to craft a narrative. Many are sent back to their deaths, for example, because of a simple misunderstanding between the term “gay” and “transgender,” since gay rights have slowly become better around the globe. Even once granted asylum, they are likely to encounter yet another barrier: transgender people are more likely to get arrested because of discrimination, which, for non-US citizens, can lead to deportation.
For transgender asylum-seekers and undocumented immigrants, the stakes are high: too high. The lack of access to medical and legal transition perpetrates further discrimination and violence, the very things they were running from in the first place. More training for immigration law enforcement, nationwide access to affordable transition related care, and a repeal of the one year asylum deadline is absolutely necessary. Trans people’s lives and basic humanity are on the line.
Perhaps that feedback was less "your essay was subpar" and more "you need to reevaluate your educational future."
