LGBTQ Immigration: Contemporary Struggles Globally and in New York скачать в хорошем качестве

LGBTQ Immigration: Contemporary Struggles Globally and in New York

The LGBTQ Policy Center is pleased to present an urgent discussion—featuring leading policymakers and advocates—about the impact of recent immigration policies on global LGBTQ migration, with a spotlight on New York. The discussion features Aaron C. Morris, Executive Director of Immigration Equality, and Daniel J. Puerto, Senior Manager of Community Outreach and Education at UnLocal. Welcoming remarks and moderation by LGBTQ Policy Center Director Erin Mayo-Adam. For decades, the United States has recognized the threat, and reality, of state violence against LGBTQ people as a legitimate reason to grant asylum. However, recent policy changes at the federal level have called into question the country’s commitment to protecting the human rights of LGBTQ immigrants. For example, earlier this year, the Trump administration deported Andry Hernandez Romero, a gay makeup artist who came to the United States seeking asylum, to a maximum security prison in El Salvador. Recent increases in ICE presence at courthouses and on the streets has created an environment of fear that discourages LGBTQ immigrants from accessing the social services they need to survive. Human Rights Watch has documented worsening discrimination, harassment, and violence against LGBTQ people both at home and abroad. Aaron C. Morris is the Executive Director of Immigration Equality. Previously, he led the organization’s law and policy programs, supervising legal services, impact litigation, policy advocacy, and lobbying efforts. Morris first joined Immigration Equality as a Pride Law Fellow in the summer of 2004, before becoming a staff attorney in 2008. A graduate of the American University’s Washington College of Law and the University of Oklahoma, he was a staff attorney in the Office of Legal Affairs of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and an associate at the law firm Masliah & Soloway. Morris is a member of the National Arab American Bar Association and the LGBT Bar Association, which recognized him, in 2014, as one of the Best LGBT Lawyers Under 40. In 2017, he was honored with the Peter M. Cicchinio award for Outstanding Advocacy in the Public Interest. He is on the board of directors of the Khalid Jabara Foundation. Daniel J. Puerto is the Senior Manager of Community Outreach and Education at UnLocal, a community-based non-profit in New York that provides direct legal representation and advocacy for undocumented immigrants. For over 12 years, Puerto has had a focus on grassroots community organizing, policy advocacy, service provision, education, and the development of entrepreneurship skills for LGBTQ+ and immigrant New Yorkers. During COVID-19 pandemic, he co-founded the Love Wins food pantry, a community food pantry servicing food insecure people led by LGBTQ+ people. He has been recognized in news outlets such as The Independent, Washington Post, El Diario, Out Magazine, City and State, MSNBC, and locally by the New York City Council. He resides in East Elmhurst, not far from Jackson Heights, where he was raised after arriving in the United States. Erin Mayo-Adam is the Director of the LGBTQ Policy Center at Roosevelt House, an associate professor in the Political Science Department, and a member of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Faculty and Curriculum Committee. She is the author of Queer Alliances: How Power Shapes Political Movement Formation and has published in numerous academic outlets, including the Law & Society Review, Law & Social Inquiry, and the Oxford Encyclopedia of LGBT Politics and Policy. Her research is situated in the fields of American politics, law and society, and political theory and bridges scholarship on social movements, interest groups and public policy, intersectionality, gender and sexuality, and migration and labor politics. Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, November 19, 2025.