Advocates and immigration attorneys warn that new LGBTQ asylum seekers deportation policy could reshape U.S. refugee protections and immigration policy debates.
The Trump administration is quietly advancing immigration policies that attorneys and LGBTQ+ advocates say could send asylum seekers to their deaths, including by transferring queer and transgender people to countries such as Uganda and Iran, where same-sex relationships and gender nonconformity are criminalized and can be punished by imprisonment, torture, or execution.
Through third-country transfer agreements and aggressive deportation tactics, the administration is placing LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, many with what lawyers describe as strong, well-documented claims, at risk. Advocates said the policies mark a dangerous shift away from the United States’ long-standing obligation to protect people fleeing persecution based on who they are.
Bekah Wolf, an attorney with the American Immigration Council who represents LGBTQ+ asylum seekers from multiple countries, said her organization has identified a troubling pattern across immigration courts nationwide.
“These are not isolated cases,” Wolf said. Because the council receives referrals from across the country, she said, it can see that similar outcomes are emerging regardless of jurisdiction.
For transgender asylum seekers, Wolf said, the risks are compounded by the U.S. government’s own posture toward gender identity. The Trump administration has publicly denied the existence of transgender people as a legitimate category under federal policy, a position that attorneys and advocates say inevitably shapes how immigration officials and judges assess transgender asylum claims.
“When a government takes the position that transgender identity doesn’t exist, it becomes much easier for decision makers to dismiss the reality of the danger those individuals face,” Wolf said. In asylum court, she said, that denial manifests as heightened skepticism, narrow interpretations of identity, and credibility determinations that hinge on rigid or outdated understandings of gender.
