Immigration and Asylum

Lambda Legal joined a coalition of over 30 organizations and leaders from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT), immigrants' rights, civil rights and faith communities to urge Congress to pass the Uniting American Families Act and end discrimination against LGBT binational families.

(New York, December 10, 2007) — Lambda Legal is opposing regulations proposed by the Department of Homeland Security on Issuance of a Visa and Authorization for Temporary Admission into the United States for Certain Nonimmigrant Aliens Infected with HIV. The suggested regulations continue the stigmatizing discrimination against persons living with HIV, create greater barriers to their entry into the United States and significantly curtail their legal rights once here.

(Dallas, March 21, 2007) — Lambda Legal Senior Staff Attorney Ken Upton and Lambda Legal’s Proyecto Igualdad Outreach Associate, Francisco Dueñas, will address community members and interested case workers on legal matters concerning HIV and immigration, sexual orientation and immigration, and civil rights issues affecting people living with HIV.

s(Los Angeles, October 14, 2003) - In an important case for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered immigrants, Lambda Legal is urging the Board of Immigration Appeals in Washington, DC, to grant asylum to a man who faced severe anti-gay persecution in Mexico -- but was rejected for asylum by a California immigration judge who said he didn't seem gay and could hide his sexual orientation to avoid persecution.

(NEW YORK, October 10, 2000) — Regina Quattrochi, Priscilla Lenes and their two children arrived at Newark International Airport, with tickets and valid proof of United States citizenship for each family member, prepared to begin a vacation in Mexico; they were not prepared for airline agents demanding permission from a non-existent father before they could board their flight.

(Los Angeles, October 26, 2004) Lambda Legal today urged a federal appeals court to grant asylum to a man who faced severe antigay persecution in his native Mexico but was rejected for asylum by an immigration judge who said he didn't seem gay and could hide his sexual orientation to avoid persecution.

(LOS ANGELES, December 7, 1999) — A Mexican citizen beaten and sexually assaulted by law enforcement officials because he is an effeminate gay man should be granted asylum in the United States, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said Tuesday, on the eve of a hearing in his case.

(NEW YORK June 6, 1997) -- Immigration officials Thursday refused to resolve a Russian lesbian's asylum case and instead ruled that Alla Pitcherskaia must prove to an immigration judge that she is likely to be persecuted if returned to her native country, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said.

Pitcherskaia, 36, now a San Francisco resident, seeks asylum in the United States after being beaten, harassed, and forcibly detained by both the Russian police and organized crime members for being a lesbian and advocate for lesbians' and gay men's civil rights.

(NEW YORK, June 26, 1997) — A San Francisco federal appeals court this week gave new hope to a Russian lesbian and other gay people seeking political asylum, sending the case of Alla Pitcherskaia back to the Bureau of Immigration Appeals, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said Thursday.