White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that President Donald Trump is exploring legal pathways to “deport” U.S. citizens to El Salvador, where the administration has already arranged to house deported immigrants in a prison known for its human rights abuses.
TBH its not very obvious. Immigration officials around the world probably still view the US as a democracy. If an American were to apply for political asylum in, say, the EU, for example, it would likely get rejected.
We need something very concrete, like if 2026 elections get cancelled or martial law declared, then they would actually take asylum applications seriously.
They aren’t going to declare or cancel anything. They’ll just do stuff and delay indefinitely.
Maybe for trans people they would get asylum, since many countries have issued travel warnings to trans people from outside the US about traveling to the US.
I’ve read some comments from trans people that because blue states exist, they aren’t considered in danger when it comes to asylum.
Pretty sure Canada has been using that as reason for denials. Most of the orgs I’ve looked at don’t help trans people in the US for that reason too.
I’ll take blue state gladly, but even that’s a difficult prospect. The economics of being a despised minority which it is legal to fire, evict, (or DV lol) are very difficult - I would probably be homeless if I wasn’t very fucking good at math.
But also - anti trans movements and fascism in general are on the rise globally. There aren’t quite that many safe places to run to.
One aspect of being a gender/sexual minority versus someone being oppressed along the aspects of race, nationality status, or religion tends to be that we don’t usually have the same kinds of familial support. If I were a POC, my family and friends would probably understand my fears, validate them, and perhaps support me. Gay and trans people are born to straight and cis parents, and it’s impossible to have to explain “yes, I am currently doing sex work because my boss looked at my drivers license and decided that I shouldn’t have a job anymore.”
Moving to a new place requires support networks and communities that trans people don’t usually have.
The rest of the world doesn’t really get that unless blue states take more drastic actions, nothing can or will be done to save trans folks, and that the second the leading party changes from blue to red, all deals are now off, and this can happen every few years.
I feel like if you are trans in the US and don’t have plans to move, you need to get ready for the worst.
Unfortunately, they’ve made getting a passport prohibitively difficult for trans folks who have already changed their gender markers so even if countries were accepting trans asylum seekers (most aren’t) getting to and across the border has excess difficulties beyond convincing another country that your life and liberty are threatened.
Plus, by the time countries do start accepting asylum seekers it’ll be too late, boarder patrol will be detaining people before they’ll have a chance to cross.