Vassar Quarterly - Summer 2018 - 21

Providing
Refuge

IIIIIIIIIIIIII
IIIIIIIIIIIIII
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

"Free to be Me" images by Steven Laxton-Immigration Equality / Tilger, Anne Gonzales-Yager

Spencer Tilger '14
Immigration Equality
All refugees face challenges in coming to
the U.S. for asylum, but some of the most
vulnerable asylum-seekers are LGTBQ
immigrants fleeing persecution. "A lot of
people don't know that it's actually illegal
to be LGTBQ in more than 70 countries
around the world," says Spencer Tilger '14,
Public Affairs Manager for Immigration
Equality, a New York-based organization
that provides legal services to LGTBQ
migrants. "There are horrific conditions
that people are facing, and in many cases,
it is supported by the government."
The recent case of a 17-year-old gay
man from Honduras shows the extent of
the challenges that such immigrants face,
says Tilger. "He had been severely abused by
his family and other people in his community, and kidnapped by gang members and
subjected to torture," he says. Fleeing for
Mexico, he was defrauded by someone who
gave him forged documents, and then sexually abused while heading north as part of
a queer/trans group traveling to the U.S.
When he finally arrived in the country, he
was put in detention for 10 months while the
government considered his case for asylum.
A lawyer from Immigration Equality
was able to take his case, says Tilger, and
won his appeal for asylum, allowing his
release. "Now he has work, he has status,
and he can start to make plans," says Tilger.
"That's what I hear from a lot of people
[who win asylum cases]. They are so
ecstatic-they feel like this is a new life."

As election season heats up, the immigration debate
is filling the airwaves with angry rhetoric that divides
candidates and citizens alike. For those working on the
front lines of refugee issues, however, the landscape of
migration looks a lot different. They see human faces
anxiously looking for help. In different ways, these
Vassar alums are answering that call, addressing the
needs of those who come here from all over the world
in search of a new life.

Tilger, who is gay himself, was a geography
major at Vassar, where he was inspired by
the senior seminar called Lines, Fences,
and Walls, which examined border issues
around the world. He studied Spanish in
Guatemala through an Ann Cornelisen
Fellowship, and worked with journalists in
Mexico on immigration stories before
coming back to New York.
Currently, Tilger says, his organization
is swamped with clients-there are 600
active cases-even as recent actions by the
Justice Department has thrown the system
into doubt. Longtime asylum applicants
have seen their cases thrown into legal
limbo and pushed to the back of the line,
as new applicants are being sped through
the courts. It is especially difficult for
LGTBQ people to prove persecution, since
they have often had to hide their identity
and have difficulty getting letters of
support in a timely fashion. Despite those
challenges, Tilger says, his group
is still able to win cases and recently
celebrated a milestone: 1,000 victories. 

Georgette Bennett '67
Multifaith Alliance for
Syrian Refugees
When the International Rescue Committee
(IRC) released the findings of a commission on Syrian refugees in 2013, Georgette
Bennett '67, an overseer of the IRC, says,
"I was gobsmacked by the scale of this
crisis, especially the gender violence. [As
in many armed conflicts, sexual violence
is used as a weapon of war.] Nobody was
paying attention."
As the IRC report, "Syria: A Regional
Crisis," stated, the Middle East was "once
again facing a human displacement
tragedy." More than 600,000 Syrians
had fled to overburdened neighboring
countries. Inside Syria, more than two
million civilians had been displaced. Syrian
civilians were struggling to survive in
communities besieged by violence,
chaos, destruction, and sexual assault.
Assistance levels, the report stated, had
failed to meet needs.
Today, those numbers have increased
to 5.4 million registered refugees and 6.5
million internally displaced within Syria.
Bennett, who is Jewish, says, "Our
religion commands that we care for the
stranger. Our religion commands that we
Previous page: Participants in the "Free to Be Me"
campaign by Immigration Equality, an NYC-based
organization that provides legal services to LGTBQ
migrants. Spencer Tilger '14, left, says many of his
organization's clients have faced persecution and
violence in their home countries.
VA S S A r Q u A r T E r LY

21



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Vassar Quarterly - Summer 2018

https://www.nxtbookmedia.com