Detention Conditions for LGBT and HIV-Affected Immigrants

LGBT and HIV-affected immigrants experience significant abuse in immigration detention facilities and deprivation of legal protections, according to a series of articles in El Diario/La Prensa, the largest Spanish-language newspaper in New York, and the oldest Spanish-language daily in the United States. The series features Matter of Lopez, a favorable case involving a transgender HIV positive Latina in which CHLP participated as a friend-of-the-court.

As CHLP's Legal Director Iván Espinoza-Madrigal explains in the article concerning Matter of Lopez: it is important to "create favorable precedent for future cases involving immigrants living with HIV, and transgender individuals because they are at risk of persecution." In a related article concerning immigration detention conditions, CHLP's Legal Director explained that undocumented immigrants, at a minimum, "should have access to the same services as inmates in prison.

CHLP's friend-of-the-court brief and the favorable immigration decision in Matter of Lopez have also been featured in Poz Magazine and Windy City Times.