Trans activist detained in Arizona and threatened with deportation due to bureaucratic catch-22
Indian-born transgender rights activist Nina Chaubal has been detained by immigration authorities and threatened with imminent deportation. She is currently being held in an Arizona Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility notorious for its mistreatment of LGBT detainees.
Raw Story spoke to Greta Martela — Chaubal’s partner and co-founder of TransLifeline, an 800-number for trans people in crisis — who explained that because of a bureaucratic muddle, Chaubal has been unable to complete the naturalization process. These types of catch-22 situations are all too common for transgender people as they attempt to negotiate the many layers of red tape involved in changing one’s gender.
Martela and Chaubal are in the process of moving from Chicago to California. They were passing through Arizona on Wednesday, Dec. 28 on a return trip to Chicago when they encountered an immigration checkpoint. When asked if everyone in the car was a U.S. citizen, Martela told them that Chaubal is from India.
However, it was when Border Patrol officers saw Chaubal’s passport — upon which she is still identified as male — that the situation became tense and uncomfortable.
“She hasn’t had her gender changed on her Indian passport,” said Martela by phone, sounding anxious and exhausted. “So they started low-key giving her shit about being trans, but eventually they said, ‘We’re going to take her to Wellton, Arizona’ — this was the Border Patrol — ‘and hand her over to ICE and then we’re going to put her in front of a judge and try to deport her.'”
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