Most media coverage on the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has focused on how its masked agents — super-charged by billions of dollars in increased Republican-approved funding — are invading Democratic-majority cities and using disproportionate physical violence to detain American citizens and non-criminal immigrants while also violating their Constitutionally protected due process rights.

But less media attention has been given to the undocumented LGBTQ+ immigrants who are most likely to be impacted by ICE raids and the Trump administration’s other anti-immigration policies, the Williams Institute at UCLA’s School of Law says. The institute estimates that one-third of queer immigrants live in California, making the state of particular importance to understanding the effect of ICE raids on the queer community — especially since Trump has targeted the state for increased ICE activity.

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The institute estimates that 3% of immigrants identify as LGBTQ+, a figure representing 639,000 individuals. Approximately 45% of these queer immigrants are also undocumented (residing in the U.S. without formal legal authorization to do so), a figure representing about 288,000 people.

So, considering that one-third of all LGBTQ+ immigrants reside in California, that means an estimated 213,000 LGBTQ+ immigrants live in California, and of those, an estimated 96,000 are undocumented. The institute further estimates that 122,000 LGBTQ+ adult immigrants live in Los Angeles County (including 5,200 nonbinary and transgender immigrants). Of all queer adult immigrants in LA County, 60% (or 73,200) of them have Latin American origins, 26,000 hold a legal residency status, 49,000 don’t have U.S. citizenship, and 23,000 are undocumented.

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In early June, widespread ICE operations occurred across Los Angeles, and Trump officials have since vowed to continue them “every day.” Against the will of California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), President Trump also deployed 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to the streets of Los Angeles in response to protests

“LGBT immigrants in California from Latin America without green cards were older, less educated, less economically resourced, more often uninsured, and not receiving routine health care compared to U.S.-born LGBT citizens,” the institute wrote in a February report.

The high-profile nature of ICE raids may compel queer immigrants to avoid police, medical services, education venues, and other governmental offices (including routine asylum hearings) in fear of possible ICE detainment. And these raids don’t only threaten or harm undocumented immigrants.

A September ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court allows federal immigration agents to consider race, ethnicity, language, and location when making stops, increasing the likelihood that ICE agents will detain non-white, non-English-speaking individuals, regardless of their legal citizenship or immigration status.

“The impacts of the Trump administration’s heightened immigration enforcement can also negatively impact the 70,000 LGBT immigrants with naturalized citizenship who are not directly subjected to arrest, detainment, or deportation,” the Williams Institute wrote in a June report. “These policies and practices erode trust in community institutions and have been shown to increase fear and psychological distress. They also lead to poorer economic opportunities and overall health outcomes, especially among those who know someone who was detained or deported.”

Additionally, Trump’s executive orders denying any federal recognition of trans, nonbinary, and intersex individuals leave such immigrants to navigate an immigration and asylum system with no information about how federal agents will respond to their gender identity and with increased risk of facing greater violence if placed in detention facilities that don’t match their gender identity, the report added.

“Immigration detention centers in the United States have well-documented substandard health and safety conditions for detainees, with more severe mistreatment for vulnerable groups, including LGBT immigrants broadly and transgender people specifically,” wrote Laurel Sprague, Research Director at the Williams Institute and lead author of its June report.

Sprague added that queer immigrants may also be at increased risk of violence if returned to their countries of origin, especially if those countries have anti-LGBTQ+ laws or public sentiment.

Using community warmth to melt ICE’s authoritarian chill

The Transgender Law Center’s Trans Immigrant Defense Effort (TIDE) has provided a “know your rights” resource for trans immigrants facing possible deportation after an ICE raid. TIDE’s resource notes that ICE agents may lie throughout the detainment process, use force to enter people’s homes, and derisively misgender queer people. The resource also advises trans people to keep immigration documents nearby, never to lie to ICE agents, and to tell immigration officials if they fear persecution in their home countries.

Gloria Cruz Cardenas, chief impact officer at the San Diego LGBT Community Center, told KPBS that her center has been holding workshops on immigrant rights and working to connect people in need with local immigration attorneys. Furthermore, the center created a memorandum of understanding with the local Mexican consulate to ensure that Mexican nationals and Mexican-American individuals have access to consular services that can assist in cases of detainment.

Additionally, the center has coordinated with Projecto Trans Latina and other community organizations to help ensure that immigrants can also get housing assistance, mental health support, HIV-prevention, basic health needs, and other essentials. This coalition understands that attacks on LGBTQ+ immigrants are an attack against the queer community at large.

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As such, the coalition is fighting back through informational campaigns that counter anti-immigrant misinformation by explaining how immigrants contribute to U.S. communities. They’re also working on interfaith community outreach to help immigrants find sponsors and friendly community social support networks.

“Our job is [also] to take care of our siblings outside the border, Cardenas added. “There are a lot of LGBT people that are waiting to enter. They are actually applying the legal process to come in for safety. Sometimes, in their journey of waiting for coming over, they are actually being harassed or even killed. So these relationships [with U.S. immigration advocacy resources] are really lifesaving.”

When people come here, they need the support,” she continued. “It’s not just material physical support, but also we need to understand their communities so that we can really rally with them and not against them.”

Cardenas herself came to the U.S. as an unaccompanied child and found it very difficult to navigate being an undocumented LGBTQ+ person.

“Seeing that our community in general are being harassed at this moment and being criminalized through this show of heavy force through the ICE raids, it’s really dehumanizing of our community,” she said. “[Having] experienced that and seeing that playing [out] at a larger scale in this moment, it’s difficult for me and is another reason why I continue to be part of this fight.”

“We are choosing to care and treat our communities with dignity and justice,” she added, “and we’re not going to stop.”

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