Issue Brief
Published on July 30, 2026
Due to a barrage of Trump administration policies, opaque bi-lateral agreements, and executive orders, LGBTQI+ people at risk of persecution have been increasingly trapped in or sent to dangerous and life-threatening conditions. These actions systematically violate laws enacted by Congress to protect people fleeing persecution and treaties the United States has pledged to uphold.
Council for Global Equality members highlighted some of the countless stories of impacted individuals in a June 2025 report titled Trapped in Danger: Trump Administration Policies Endanger Persecuted LGBTQI+ People. Over the past year, the situation for LGBTQI+ people fleeing persecution has only further deteriorated.
The Trump administration has sent nearly 20,000 immigrants, including LGBTQI+ refugees, to dozens of countries of which they are not nationals – and often have no legal or personal ties.
Through an initiative called Banished by Bargain: Third Country Deportation Watch, Human Rights First and Refugees International have tracked this opaque and expanding patchwork of agreements with other countries. In a June 25, 2026 report titled Delivered to Danger: How the Trump Administration’s Third-Country Agreements Threaten the Lives of LGBTQ Refugees and Asylum Seekers, Immigration Equality documented how LGBTQ+ people—including individuals already granted protection by U.S. immigration courts—have been forcibly transferred to third countries where they face detention, violence, criminalization, and onward return to the countries they fled.
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