“In those moments, I feel so much disappointment, because the most powerful government in the world claims not to have the capacity to help or process the people who are in most need of protection.“
– Brigitte Baltazar Lujano, LGBTQI+ coordinator at Al Otro Lado (AOL).
AOL is a women-led bi-national advocacy, legal and humanitarian aid organization serving migrants, refugees and deportees in the United States and Mexico.
Documenting the violations of civil and human rights by the Mexican and U.S. law enforcement authorities that deportees and migrants faced, AOL started as a project in 2011 in Tijuana, Mexico. It wasn’t until 2016, when Trump was elected president, that AOL expanded its focus to include asylum seekers whose federal and international rights were being violated when Customs and Border Protection began turning asylum seekers away from U.S. ports of entry. AOL since then, has grown exponentially to meet the growing needs of thousands of refugees by providing critical legal and humanitarian aid on both sides of the border in response to unjust immigration policies.
Al Otro Lado provides “Know Your Rights” materials through asylum 101 workshops, and various shelters throughout Tijuana. AOL also utilizes platforms like TikTok which disseminates essential information on asylum process and immigration policies in 16 different languages, serving thousands of migrants.
Participants in a recent storytelling workshop that AOL coordinated in collaboration with Casita de Unión Trans (an LGBTQ+ migrant shelter), for trans asylum seekers.
Uncertainty for Asylum Seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border
Recent discussions around the U.S.-Mexico border among policymakers in March, 2024 have created apprehension within the community of asylum seekers. And while seeking asylum is a right in both the U.S and international laws, the new executive order that took effect in early June allows the U.S. administration to stop processing asylum claims if the number of irregular crossings at the US-Mexico border surpasses an average of 2,500 per day for a week.
AOL services are directly affected by U.S. Government policies; when policy changes take effect, AOL is required to immediately revamp their service delivery model to continue to benefit the community of asylum seekers. This requires AOL to retrain staff and volunteers and to revise and translate Know-Your-Rights educational materials.
“The uncertainty of border policy and the U.S. government’s ongoing efforts to limit access to asylum at the southern border, keeps all of us hyper-vigilant and always waiting for the next piece of bad news“ elaborates Nicole Ramos, AOL’s Border Rights Project director on the state of mind in regards to this line of work.
Responding to the Needs of LGBTQI+ Asylum Seekers
Rainbow Railroad was introduced to AOL’s work with migrants, asylum seekers and refugees when staff visited the U.S.-Mexico border in 2019 to learn about the LGBTQI+ asylum seekers who were trapped in dangerous border cities due to the draconian immigration laws. LGBTQI+ asylum seekers traveling to the Mexico-U.S. border often face physical violence, abductions for ransoms and a lack of a safe means of transportation. At the border, there is a severe shortage of shelter spaces for queer individuals as well as food, water and healthcare. LGBTQI+ people are at a greater risk of harm because of their identities, including gender identity or expression.
In 2021 AOL began working together with Rainbow Railroad around a pilot program supported by the Canadian government to offer asylum seekers the option of resettling toArgentina, where the asylum seeking process is not adversarial and doesn’t lead to detention.
Since then, and over the course of two years, Rainbow Railroad has helped fund critical components of AOL’s LGBTQI+ program including safe transportation for asylum seekers, medication access, emergency housing, translation costs of “Know Your Rights” materials on emerging border policies and LGBTQI+ shelter support.
Rainbow Railroad has also referred LGBTQI+ asylum seekers in Tijuana to AOL’s legal orientation and shelter services as well as medical services to provide HIV medication and hormone treatment.
Brigitte Baltazar Lujano, LGBTQI+ coordinator at AOL emphasizes Rainbow Railroad’s crucial role in supporting AOL’s work, “We wouldn’t have had the capacity to help as many people as we helped to find shelter and a safe place to stay, life-saving medication and important access to resources to help them seek asylum in the United States.”
Trans Day of Visibility March, Tijuana, 2024
Governments Falling Short
On reckoning with the most difficult part of the day-to-day work, Baltazar Lujano highlights the only government approved pathway to asylum, a smartphone application called CBP One, which is often inaccessible with system-wide glitches that render it inoperable for days at a time.
“In those moments, I feel so much disappointment, because the most powerful government in the world claims not to have the capacity to help or process the people who are in most need of protection.“
The most rewarding part of the day-to-day work for Brigitte is when an asylum seeker is finally able to cross the US-Mexico border and is in the United States, safe from the danger they fled, to focus on their new journey.
Addressing the Mexican government, Brigitte articulates “If you can’t protect our people, stop standing in the way of their attempts to seek protection in the U.S. Stop sending the National Guard to do the U.S.’s dirty work by keeping people from reaching the U.S border.”
AOL aspires to ensure all the communities they serve have prompt access to the legal process, which can significantly improve their well-being and safety.
For AOL, queer community means family, compassion, love, resilience, resistance, and strength.
Brigitte asserts to LGBTQI+ individuals who are facing difficulties “Remember to never lose hope, to stand firm in your beliefs and to keep fighting for your lives, no matter what. As long as you’re still alive, there is always hope.”