New Summary Report Details How Trump Administration Policies Endanger LGBTQI+ People at Risk of Persecution
Washington D.C. — As Pride Month begins and in the lead-up to World Refugee Day on June 20, a group of five human rights organizations has jointly released a new summary report that details the impact of Trump administration refugee and asylum policies on LGBTQI+ individuals. Trapped in Danger: Trump Administration Policies Endanger Persecuted LGBTQI+ People finds that people at risk of persecution due to their sexual orientation or gender identity have been effectively trapped in dangerous and life-threatening conditions, and stripped of access to protections.
Issued jointly by the Council for Global Equality, Human Rights First, Immigration Equality, Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration (ORAM) and Rainbow Railroad, the report details how the Trump administration’s resettlement freeze and policies that violate U.S. asylum laws have left LGBTQI+ refugees facing dire and escalating dangers.
“The Trump administration’s attempts to illegally dismantle the refugee and asylum systems are costing countless LGBTQ lives,” said Bridget Crawford, Director of Law and Policy at Immigration Equality. “No one should live in fear of persecution because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, and all people have a legal right to ask for help. U.S. leaders at every level of government must move immediately to restore and defend these lifesaving protections. If they do not act right now, more LGBTQ people will be killed.”
“With this administration’s combined attacks on international aid, humanitarian protection pathways, and its spreading of virulent anti-migrant and anti-LGBTQI+ rhetoric and policies, LGBTQI+ migrants have never been more vulnerable,” said Senna Seniuk, Director of Engagement for Rainbow Railroad. “These anti-refugee and anti-LGBTQI+ policies are attempting to metaphorically and literally disappear persecuted LGBTQI+ people. We need our elected officials to stand up for LGBTQI+ migrants, and restore these essential protections.”
“The Trump administration has turned its back on the very people our refugee and asylum systems were built to protect,” said Steve Roth, Executive Director, Organization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration (ORAM). “LGBTQI+ refugees are being abandoned to violence, detention, even death—simply for being who they are. This isn’t just a policy failure. It’s a moral collapse. And it must stop now.”
“In the Project 2025 playbook, Donald Trump and his advisors made it clear that attacks on LGBTQI+ people and on immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers would be the spearhead of their assault on democracy, human rights, and the rule of law for all,” said Ian Lekus, Policy and Communications Officer for the Council for Global Equality. “The cruel anti-refugee policies enacted starting on Day One of the second Trump Administration have not only illegally abandoned U.S. commitments to the right to asylum, they are already costing LGBTQI+ lives in the service of the Administration’s authoritarian policy agenda.”
“By freezing resettlement and gutting asylum protections, the Trump administration has left vulnerable people in grave danger,” said Eleanor Acer, Senior Director for Global Humanitarian Protection at Human Rights First. “These aren’t just bad policies, they are a death sentence for LGBTQI+ people fleeing violence and persecution, who are now left facing escalating risks without the lifesaving protections of U.S. resettlement and asylum. The administration must immediately reverse its resettlement freeze and adhere to the asylum laws enacted by Congress, and Congress must do all it can to press the administration to uphold U.S. law and treaties.”
The summary report outlines several cases of people endangered by these bans and policies including:
- A lesbian couple who fled Afghanistan now at dire risk of return to Taliban persecution;
- A transgender woman brutally murdered while awaiting a U.S. resettlement interview;
- A Russian asylum seeker fleeing persecution due to his sexual orientation and political opinion who was unlawfully denied a U.S. asylum hearing and sent to Panama;
- Andry José Hernández Romero, a gifted Venezuelan makeup artist who was seeking asylum from persecution related to his sexual orientation and political beliefs, but was taken by the Trump administration and flown to the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) prison in El Salvador.
The groups urge steps by the administration and Congress to restore the lifesaving protections of asylum and refugee resettlement.
