[COPY] Facing “double exile,” queer and other political asylees in US call for transnational solidarity.

LGBTQ+ political refugees from Eastern Europe and Central Asia are among asylees feeling newly exiled in the US and terrified of being deported to home countries they fled to avoid death or prison.

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Photo: Jay Walker

In this issue:

• Call to Pride action in Brighton Beach

• Defending trans immigrants Rights

• A new underground

• The plight of ‘double exiles’

• Trump’s attacks on asylum seekers

• Trump now wants to pay people to leave the US

• Call for local leaders to speak up & local solidarity

• So what are you doing this Saturday?

• Other actions coming up

Call to Pride action in Brighton Beach

This Saturday, March 10^th, will mark year nine of the annual Brighton Beach Pride in southern Brooklyn, NY, an annual small, celebratory event that will start at 11 am on the Riegelmann Boardwalk there. Except this year, many members of the local LGBTQ+ community who are queer asylees from Central Asia, Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union won’t be there, because showing up is deemed too risky, given Trump’s draconian immigration attacks that also threaten asylees. Instead, Yelena Goltsman, a Ukrainian-born, LGBTQ+ human rights activist and president of the Qaravan network (formerly Rusa LGBTQ+), says she is urging any member who does not have a green card or citizenship to stay home this year as a precaution. She is especially concerned about transgender asylees.

She’s also issued an urgent, open invitation to the broader LGBTQ+ and public to show up at Pride in an act of community solidarity. Goltsman founded the network in 2008 for the Russian-speaking queer community in the US. Her organization launched its first Brighton Beach Pride in 2017 in the wake of horrific murders of LGBTQ+ people in Chechnya.

“It’s become too dangerous and we can’t guarantee the safety of our members, especially those who are transgender,” Goltsman told me in an interview, while saying she so wished it was not so. “We are asking people to come to Brighton Beach Pride and show up for this community that is under attack.”

Defending Trans Immigrants Rights

This year’s Pride theme is Defending Rights of Trans Immigrants and highlights the threats and vulnerability facing local Eastern European and Central Asian trans asylees in Brighton Beach who are the most vulnerable, she said. “We want people to come here and show unwavering support for our trans community members. The more people come out, the stronger the message we send. We want to show our immigrant asylum seekers and refugees that they are not alone!”

Marching with Immigrant Pride, Brighton Beach Pride

Photo: Qaravan

“Our members are being forced to hide again, like they did in Russia,” says Goltsman.

A new underground

Goldman said she is hearing from members who are staying at home and won’t go out, terrified about the possibility of being picked up by ICE, detained, and deported to their home countries. “Our members are being forced to hide again, like they did in Russia,” says Goltsman, adding, “This is a real urgency. There is a total re-traumatization of the community. We need help to protect them and we want to raise awareness without putting anyone more at risk.” In other words, there’s a new queer underground in Brighton Beach.

At the same time, Brighton Beach Pride represents a celebration of freedom and LGBTQ+ identity, and Goltsman wants it to remain that way. “This event is not only a joyful celebration of visibility and equality – it is also a powerful expression of solidarity, resilience, and the ongoing fight for human rights.”

Since its founding, thousands of people have become Qaravan clients and passed through to resettle across the US. Goltsman estimates the group currently has 400 to 500 active members. As a 501C3 nonprofit, Qaravan provides a range of supportive services, and above all, she said, “we are like a big family” for new arrivals, one that provides mutual aid, social events, programs, and referrals to legal services, too.

The plight of ‘double exiles’

Many in the queer Russian community in Brighton Beach identify as “double exiles,” a term used by some asylees to the US who feel newly unmoored and unprotected in the US, having lost the tentative sense of safety they gained as humanitarian or political refugees. Many Qaravan members fled Putin’s Russia, which has criminalized the LGBTQ+ community, jailed activists, banned all LGBTQ+ activities as dangerous, and, in 2023, also outlawed the “international public LGBT+ movement,” labeling it extremist. Anyone in Russia who seeks to volunteer or help or is associated with any LGBTQ+ activities faces prison and other severe penalties.

Brighton Beach Pride, 2023

Photo: Matt Tracy

That includes displaying symbols such as a rainbow flag, or anything to do with Pride, which is why the Brighton Beach event is all the more important to Russia’s diaspora and asylee community. Putin’s homophobic crackdown have prompted many who could flee Russia to do so, even before its war on Ukraine prompted the mass departure of more of its citizens. As it stands now, some asylees have become permanent citizens and await citizenship appointments, while newer arrivals may be waiting for a Green Card. But as we’ve seen with the weeks of headlines about warrantless ICE arrest detentions and deportations, having one’s papers feels like less protection now.

Trump’s attacks on asylum seekers

On top of that, Trump recently moved to end asylum and legal pathways to it, although is policies have been challenged in court, and the picture remains in flux. In January, Trump issued an executive order halting additional refugee resettlement to the US for at least four months as part of his anti-immigration policies. While the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security may jointly make exceptions to that order, on a case-by-case basis, the overall picture is grim for anyone applying for asylum to the US now. He also shut down the CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) One app that asylum seekers used to schedule asylum appointments and enter the US from the southern border.

“Our members are being forced to hide again, like they did in Russia.”

— Yelena Goltsman, LGBTQ+ and human rights activist and president of Qaravan

Another executive order suspended entry of undocumented immigrants to the US under any circumstances, claiming the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) gave Trump the right to protect the US “against invasion,” which is the term he used to justify shutting down entry via the US southern border. The order also called for expedited removal to the interior of the US those who’d arrived here in the prior two years. He also reinstated the “Remain in Mexico” policy to require asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while awaiting immigration court hearings.

These orders have been challenged by the ACLU, other legal and immigration rights groups who are in the Democracy 2025 hub of resistance to Trump’s agenda. For an update on the status of these, see their litigation tracker.

Another order reversed Biden-era Temporary Protection Status (TPS) given to a set number of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans) – the CHNV parole program, and initially suspended a ”United for Ukraine” parole program that allowed over 150,000 Ukrainians to enter the US. All of these people not only face self-deportation orders, but, adding salt to the wound, Trump’s team has imposed a $998 per day penalty for every day that people refuse to self-deport after having gotten orders to do so. Many of these proposals are lifted almost verbatim from the conservative policy blueprint, Project 2025.

But on March 25, a legal challenge by Venezuelan plaintiffs led to a federal judge to pause the Trump order ending the parole program for them. So Venezuelans granted TPS under the 2021 designation can legally stay in the US and work until September 10, 2025 — for the moment. Then, on April 14th, a US District Court judge issued a preliminary injunction putting a pause on deportation of the remaining groups in the CHNV parole program. So for now, parolees from all four countries can stay, including those who already received orders to self-deport.

In the latest counter-move, the Trump administration on May 5 asked the Supreme Court to end the TPS status of Venezuelans, seeking to overturn the lower court ruling. But for now, the Venezuelans can also ignore orders to self-deport as this legal battle plays out.

Trump and the autocrat he most admires, Putin

Photo: Mikhail Klimentyev |AFP | Getty Images

Trump’s cuts of federal funding have also heavily negatively impacted the International Organization for Migration, a lead agency at the United Nations that provides support to governments dealing with mass migration issues. The IOM historically helps migrants with documents, food, health access, and other emergency services. Now, about 40% of its budget that came from US funding is gone. As of now, asylum seekers have been left stranded enroute to the US, while recent deportees in places such as Costa Rica are also fending largely on their own, without help from the US government, anyway. Local governments are trying to pick up the slack, but the picture is dire.

Trump now wants to pay people to leave the US

In the latest twist, Trump announced a new plan May 5^th that offers undocumented immigrants in the US $1000 a person to self-deport, using a retooled CBP Home app – the same app many had used to apply for asylum and schedule asylum appointments. He also promised that those who took up the offer would “help preserve the option” to later re-enter legally, a promise that was quickly denounced as “an incredibly cruel bit of deception” by Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council. Trump’s money dangle is a sign of how desperate his administration has become to fulfill his campaign promise of deporting one million people as court challenges to his immigration policies pile up, and are branded illegal. ‘

At Brighton Beach, Golstman said her organization is furiously trying to find pro bono lawyers to help scared members, and remains focused on its initial mission of providing help and mutual aid. In many ways, Qaravan serves as a giant support group and starter community for people who often arrive to the US with only their clothes and little more, having escaped persecution, and sometimes having traveled a circuitous route out of Russia or neighboring countries to finally arrive in the US.

Some Qaravan members came in from Mexico using the One App; they definitely can’t self-deport to Russia, and, for those who are trans, they aren’t certain if it’s even safe to try to travel anywhere. “We are doing our best to get them legal advice, but we need help,” Goltsman said, confirming that Quaravan also welcomes tax-exempt financial donations and volunteers, especially Russian speakers.

Photo: Qaravan

Call for local leaders to speak up & local solidarity

Given the fact that returning to Russia is tantamount to possible arrest and worse, Goltsman said Qaravan asylees she’s spoken to aren’t going anywhere – meaning they’re not going to self-deport – but many are reviewing their options. That’s where Qaravan comes in, offering some support of community, and mobilizing the larger queer Brooklyn and New York communities to help. The group has distributed Know Your Rights flyers in Russian with information and sharing tips for immigrants and referrals to resources for transgender members. She’s also called on local leaders to support the immigrant trans community.

Unfortunately, she says, some leaders in Brighton Beach’s immigrant Russian community are homophobic, and the area has its share of Trump voters. She’s invited several local progressive leaders to attend the Pride event and to speak up about the need to protect Russian LGBTQ asylees. But she hasn’t seen that needed local solidarity– not to the degree needed or hoped for.

She’s also keeping her eye on the shifting immigration picture, hoping for a reprieve. Last week, a Donald Trump-appointed judge in Texas deemed his reliance on the Alien Enemies Act to justify deporting Venezuelans and Salvadorans was “unlawful.” U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. said Trump’s argument didn’t meet the legal standard demanded by the 1798 wartime law, because the alleged actions of the Central American gangs didn’t quality as an “invasion” or “predatory incursion” under the law. Another judge in New York also ruled against Trump’s attempt to claim wartime powers to mass deport immigrants.

That’s not all.

A newly declassified memo also challenged Trump’s justification for invoking the Alien Enemies Act. It confirmed that that U.S. spy agencies rejected Trump’s claim that Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, controls the Tren de Aragua gang -- a key assertion Trump made to justify a wartime law.

That hasn’t stopped Trump’s team for ramping up their plans to deep outsourcing detention of US deportees. Libya has now agreed to take some, while Rwanda, led by strongman Paul Kagame, is mulling the request, as are other countries where Marco Rubio is busy meeting with foreign heads of state, pitching the offer of a cash or other favors deal for helping out Trump.

So, what are you doing this Saturday?

If you’re in New York, consider a joy-filled act of beach- blanket-Boardwalk transnational solidarity at Pride. More info and RSVP link here.

If you’re outside New York, you can still support Qaravan, and the many local organizations that are helping asylum seekers to navigate this very difficult moment. And to the resistance movement at-large, let’s make sure to keep the voices and needs of trans and other asylees and asylum seekers front and center in the ongoing protest against Trump’s cruel immigration dragnet. Consider reaching out to local immigration groups where you are and asking how you can help and how to raise up the voices of those being targeted. That’s also true if you’re in another country where asylum seekers are stuck or have been abandoned. Consider how you may help out or donate. The needs are high.

We also need to offer greater protection and support in our communities to individuals like the Russian trans members at Qaravan feeling forced to lie low. All of us who are less vulnerable and more protected are called upon to act in small and bigger ways for those cannot. In Russia, waving a rainbow flag will put you in jail. It’s a stark reminder of what’s at stake for our rights and democracy here, too.

Other Actions Coming Up:

There are a lot of other resistance actions coming up this week and planned during Pride. On June 6, Unite for Veterans is joining veteran’s groups across the country for mass rally to commemorate the 81st anniversary of D-Day. It’s happening at the Washington Mall, starting at 2 pm — and timed to be a week before Trump throws himself a big military parade, inspired by those thrown by other dictators.

On June 14th, there’s a mas mobilization call to join “No Kings Day” actions in cities across the US, to counter Trump’s slow of military power that day. It’s organized by a consortium of groups, including 50501, The Women’s March, Indivisible, and others.

Locally, there are actions in many cities, and you can see a calendar here.

In New York, Rise and Resist has a calendar of its and ally actions, and has actions planned tomorrow to protest the role of Billionaires in supporting Trump’s coup, law firms capitulating to Trump, anti-deportation actions, and to hold vigils at Fox News and a Tesla showroom, and more.

Last reminder: This newsletter is affiliated with the Resisting Project 2025 campaign of GenDemocracy. We are continually posting new updates and resources there. So check it out. Plus, we are some new merch, including T-shirt perfect for the summer days of protest ahead.

Also, will you help us do our collective part to spread the word about the Brighton event and the needs of Russian asylums? Restack this post, and please consider sharing content from our newsletter with your networks. All hands on deck. Thank you! — AC