TEXAS – Equality Texas is the largest statewide organization dedicated solely to securing full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Texans through political action, education, community organizing, and collaboration. Our organization knows first hand how the Latinx LGBTQ community is experiencing an intense and complicated time living within the United States. In Texas alone, so much remains to be done to ensure each and every LGBTQ Texan, undocumented or DACAmented, can live safely, authentically, and free from discrimination regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation.
According to a recent study, there are over 75,000 LGBTQ DREAMers in the U.S. and over 36,000 of them have participated in Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). The third largest immigrant population in the U.S. is in Houston, where thousands of families have been forced out of their homes by Hurricane Harvey. Undocumented immigrants displaced by the hurricane’s devastation may not be eligible for disaster assistance unless they apply on behalf of their U.S. citizen child. At a time when immigrants and Texas-born families are diligently working together to rebuild after Hurricane Harvey, an end to DACA would further rip our families apart, and unjustly instill fear within our communities. Latinx LGBTQ people already experience increased levels of discrimination and harassment in employment, healthcare, housing, and education.
Equality Texas stands with the local to national coalitions of advocacy organizations denouncing the Trump administration’s plan to end DACA. As an organization which mobilized 50,000+ grassroots supporters from across a range of issues—LGBTQ advocacy, women’s rights, immigrants and labor rights—we oppose any policies which threaten the rights, health and lives of vulnerable Texans. We call upon the U.S. Congress to act in a bipartisan manner to enact legislation that will ensure the continuation of the DACA program.
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