In November 2015, voters in the city of Houston, Texas voted down the city-council-approved Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) by a margin of 60.9 percent to 30.1 percent. The defeat of the ordinance, meant to protect city residents from discrimination in employment and other services based on factors including sexual orientation and gender identity, proved to be a stunning defeat …
On August 15, 2012, undocumented youth began the process of applying for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that was announced by President Barack Obama just three months prior. Since then, DACA has allowed hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrant youth to apply for temporary deferrals of deportations and work permits. Three years later, immigrant youth and their …
It had been 23 years since my family migrated to the U.S., but now, I had the opportunity to go back. I didn’t know how to react because there were so many questions going through my mind. I felt excited and confused. I could not believe that I would get to go back to Mexico before my parents, but I …
Detention and deportations are a harm the entire community, and this is especially true for those who fall under the Risk Classification Assessment (RCA), which include pregnant women, HIV+ people, LGBT individuals, people with disabilities, and chronic illness. The protocol to consider housing for detainees is not decided on self assessed gender, but instead on physical anatomy or legal documentation. …
