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This past weekend a group of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people of color gathered in D.C. for the first White House LGBTQ Leaders of Color Summit. Today the participants are meeting with White House officials but without one of our own, Jerssay Arredondo. He was not allowed inside the White House because of unjust screening methods that excludes undocumented people.

Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement, El/La Para TransLatinas, The TransLatin@ Coalition, and GetEQUAL are outraged and stand in solidarity with Jerssay and the more than 267,000 LGBTQ undocumented immigrants in the country. Currently, the Obama administration is torturing and dehumanizing LGBTQ undocumented immigrants inside ICE detention centers, as well as criminalizing and deporting our people by the masses.

Out of principle, Familia:TQLM Steering Committee members made a choice to not attend the summit inside the White House today. At large, our base and community are undocumented LGBTQ folks, therefore, our commitment is to them and not to the state. Our organization’s collective work envisions a world in which LGBTQ immigrants are fully liberated. As we continue the fight for our communities we must constantly and intentionally uplift our members that are systemically left out of critical conversations that influence policies and that have a direct impact on our lives. We will continue to engage in grassroots organizing and strategies in order to demand #Not1More LGBTQ deportation and we encourage all our movement leaders to join us in our efforts.