Karolina López co-founded a Tucson nonprofit to fight for LGBTQ migrants like herself
When Karolina López left her hometown of Acapulco, Guerrero, México, she did so expecting the U.S. had a better life to offer her — not the daily torture and abuse she endured as a trans woman in her native land.
But years of living in Arizona as a trans undocumented immigrant has shown her that people with a similar identity suffer just as much, and sometimes far more, especially for those that find themselves in an immigration detention center.
She was one of them.
In August 2009, López didn’t have a valid ID on her when she called the police to report her bag had been stolen. She was detained by police and later transferred to the Eloy Detention Center.
“Once I got to Eloy they made me get naked. Because I hadn’t had any surgery on my body, they decided to lock me up with the men. It was one of the worst experiences of my life,” López told La Voz/The Arizona Republic.
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She spent three years detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a time during which she was accosted verbally and physically by others who were also detained there, she said.
Years later, she finds herself helping women and migrants that have gone through a similar experience under ICE custody. Operating from a small home in Tucson, the nonprofit she helps run has assisted thousands of trans immigrants in gaining freedom and following a path toward legal stay in the U.S.
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López: They threatened to ‘kill us’
López currently leads the Mariposas Sin Fronteras organization. But years prior, her experience in the Eloy Detention Center almost broke her.
She was 27 when ICE detained her.
“As soon as I set foot in that place, the abuse began. I was assaulted and raped, and when I would tell the officials, they would tell me it was my fault because of the way I am,” López said. “They wouldn’t believe me and they would laugh at me.”
During more than three years of detention, she wasn’t the only trans woman sent to the men’s area. Others like here were also accosted.
“The others didn’t want us near them, they would spit in our food or they would throw it in our faces,” she recalled.
She said that men in the facility would often tell her to request to be sent to another facility. Otherwise, “they would kill us.”
Oftentimes she found herself in el hoyo — the hole, what other detainees referred to as solitary confinement. “I would scream all day and officials would give me pills so that I would stop screaming. It was horrible,” she said.
According to Human Rights Watch, dozens of transgender women, including asylum seekers who have come to the United States to protect themselves from abuse in their country of origin, are locked up in jails or in ICE detention centers that operate under jail-like conditions.
The report indicates that many have been subjected to sexual assault and abuse during detention, while others remain in solitary confinement indefinitely. ICE personnel claim that isolation efforts are set in place for the safety of transgender migrants, but this often leads to further abuse and mental health issues.
“To date, I continue to have issues with my mental health like depression, stress and anxiety,” she said. “It’s something that I can’t forget, and I don’t wish that on anyone else.”
But during her time at Eloy, she met other trans women. They were the ones who told her not to give up, to keep appealing those deportation orders that were constantly thrown López’s way.
A collective in the making
Six months after being detained, she was given her first deportation order; she appealed. In the months that followed, she continued to do the same while still enduring abuse within the ICE facility.
She reached out to The Florence Project, a nonprofit that offers legal services to detained migrants in Arizona. Through this organization, she was able to get legal representation and eventually gained her freedom and legal stay in the U.S.
She never forgot about the trans women still detained though — how through their bond they motivated each other to keep fighting for a stay in the U.S. That is how she and a group of others founded the Rainbow Defense Fund, Inc., a collective that would in 2017 turn into Mariposas Sin Fronteras, a nonprofit organization of queer and trans people that supports people from the LGBTQ+ community affected by the immigration detention system.
Since its start, this Tucson-based organization has worked to end detentions.
López, director of the organization, said the group has always fought for the liberation of the LGBTQ+ community from ICE detention centers. The organization provides letters of support and other legal resources to be used in immigration court so that those detained have the necessary tools to fight for their right to stay in the U.S.
Mariposas Sin Fronteras has paid more than $150,000 in bonds to free 27 people from detention in the last six years.
In addition, between March and October 2020, Mariposas awarded more than $16,000 in financial support to LGBTQ+ migrants in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the overarching goal is to work toward a society "that no longer finds solutions in the system of immigration detention or the prison industrial complex," the website states.
“We also have Casa Mariposa, a shelter that receives (LGBTQ+ migrants) when they come out of detention. We connect them with mental health clinics. We reintegrate them into society. We support them with money to solve their most urgent needs,” said López.
In fact, Casa Mariposa was a service she used upon being released from Eloy in 2012. Once Mariposas Sin Fronteras was established, the nonprofit acquired Casa Mariposa; they now operate side by side to assist folks recently released from ICE centers.
"Karolina is like the mom of the house — she makes sure that everyone has what they need: water, food, clothes," said Lizbeth Okita, who joined Mariposas Sin Fronteras about a year ago. Okita is in charge of the administrative and logistical work of Casa Mariposa.
For Okita, who has long worked for organizations that help the LGBTQ+ migrant community like the Trans Asylum Seeker Support Network, it was López's passion and work ethic that inspired her to join.
"(Karolina) has a very big heart and she is always ready to help in whatever way. I have learned a lot from her work, her compassion, and her solidarity," she said.
Reach the reporter at javier.arce@lavozarizona.com. Find him on Twitter at @JavierArce33.
This story is part of the Faces of Arizona series. Have feedback or ideas on who we should cover? Send them to editor Kaila White at kaila.white@arizonarepublic.com.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Karolina López co-founded Tucson nonprofit for LGBTQ migrant rights
