Oasis Provides Critical Services for LGBTQ+ Immigrant Parents
Numerous studies have shown that the undocumented status of LGBTQ+ immigrant parents increases significant negative outcomes for their children–from physical and mental health, to education, and more. Oasis Legal Services provides critical legal and wraparound support services to ensure LGBTQ+ parents can create family stability without fear of deportation, and access vital support services to ensure their family’s wellbeing.
Jenny*, a forty-year-old asylum seeker from Mexico, has two U.S. citizen daughters who are her world. When their father’s abuse escalated, and he threatened to take the girls from Jenny, she did not call the police for fear of deportation to Mexico. Fleeing the relationship, she struggled to find a safe place for her and her daughters to stay. Her immediate and extended family did not accept her lesbian identity, and her undocumented status created barriers to safe employment and the inability to access support services. Jenny described the impact it had, saying, “It was a life on the edge, with barely the necessary things for my girls. Emotionally, they were always worried because they feared any day I could be deported to Mexico and they would be all alone. It was always in their minds.”
According to the UCLA William Institute, 16% of LGBTQ+ couples in the United States are raising children. A number that is likely higher when including LGBTQ+ immigrants who are acting as ‘de-facto’ parents to siblings, relatives, or children of friends.
For both U.S. Citizen and undocumented children of undocumented LGBTQ+ parents, the stressors of a parent’s undocumented status are a constant reality in their day to day lives. Parents’ restricted ability to travel, and limited (or exploitative) work, in addition to “fear or experience of deportation, and low-resource social environments,'' continues to undermine children’s wellbeing. Undocumented status also impacts immigrant mothers’ “enrollment in safety net programs such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program (SNAP), SNAP for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Supplemental Security Income,” and public health insurance, even when they or their children are eligible for such programs. Studies have shown that “mixed- (immigration) status families report worse physical health for their children as compared to their U.S. citizen co-ethnics,” even when controlling for parent education, income, insurance, and other factors.
Even without looking at the significant research evidence, Oasis caseworkers know the heartwrenching hurdles that our clients go through for their children, because of the many many in-depth conversations we have, and from our extensive internal survey data, in which we capture updates throughout our client’s immigration process. That is why Oasis’s wraparound support program works with our clients to identify barriers and stressors faced by them and their families. Our advocates assist in benefits applications, workplace advocacy, and connect our clients to housing rights programs, support groups, medical providers, and so much more.
A year after her initial meeting with Oasis, Jenny reflected, “We now have received so many benefits from Oasis. It is liberating to have papers–thank God. I have a better paying job that is stable, where I can afford the things that my children need. Since we are with Oasis we have more happiness and contentment in our family. My partner and I have brought the children to Oasis events where there is community. Honestly, they feel like it is our extended family now.”
*Name has been changed to protect the client’s identity
Published June 17, 2024