Immigration narratives in politics and media mostly focus on the southern border, with the current U.S. president evoking racist images of Mexican gang members invading, South American cartels smuggling drugs, and Black immigrants eating cats and dogs in the United States.

These narratives are, in a word, bullshit. At various times, majorities of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. didn’t cross the southern border, they overstayed their visas. Most fentanyl brought into the U.S. was smuggled in by U.S. citizens. Immigrants commit crimes at a much lower rate than U.S. citizens. And as for cats and dogs, the vice president and others have admitted that the story is BS.

---

---

Both mainstream political parties have long treated immigrants like pawns and bargaining chips in an endless game that leaves people’s lives and safety hanging in a confusing bureaucratic maze where legal residence and permanent citizenship remain uncertain and elusive, depending on whoever is president at any given time.

It’s a shame how thoroughly distorted our understanding of immigration has become as a result. A large majority of southern migrants are asylum-seekers fleeing persecution in their home countries, working undocumented immigrants pay an estimated $16 billion annually into Social Security and Medicare (and don’t collect any benefits), and studies show that immigrants increase jobs and housing, despite claims to the contrary.

Often missing from all this rhetoric are the voices of actual immigrants, including LGBTQ+ people and people from non-American continents. We get the contemporary political framing without any nuanced historical context, and lots of xenophobic doomsaying with few words from advocates fighting for immigrants’ dignity and constitutionally protected legal rights.

While LGBTQ Nation has long reported on queer refugees and the administration’s anti-immigrant abuses, this month, we’re elevating marginalized voices and uncovering vital historical context to reveal “The Untold Stories of Queer Immigration.”

One of our earliest stories in this monthly edition is an interview with out U.S. Rep. Emily Randall (D-WA)) discussing her observations at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainment facility as well as why immigrant rights matter to non-immigrant citizens.

Our cover story talks to activists and refugees connected to Rainbow Railroad, a not-for-profit organization that helps relocate LGBTQ+ refugees. One article will revisit the historic 1975 case of Richard Adams and Tony Sullivan, a bi-national gay couple whose case was the first U.S. lawsuit to seek federal recognition of a same-sex marriage for immigration purposes. 

We’ll share the experiences of African and Iraqi refugees to hear their stories of escape and relocation while navigating possible asylum in the United States. Our interview with the Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project will look at the unique needs and challenges in providing support to migrants from across the Black diaspora.

We’ll also take several glimpses into immigration’s cultural aspects by covering the trans and nonbinary celebrities who are fighting the Trump administration’s needlessly biased passport policies, documentaries that examine the queer immigrant experience in the United States, and a look at how migration forced by climate change uniquely impacts LGBTQ+ emigrants.

Many of these stories might otherwise go untold or underappreciated, so we’re proud to help elevate them. They help provide insight and the real human side of a complicated issue and reflect on overlooked aspects of our community’s resilience, resistance, and power in the U.S. and across the globe.