Location: Tucson
Janice Gould
Niki Herd
Mariel Masque
Wingspan Domestic Violence Project
Community Foundation for Southern Arizona
Lesbianas Latinas de Tucson
Mariposas Sin Fronteras
Mariposas Sin Fronteras was formed in 2011 by LGBTQI people within the immigrant rights movement in Arizona to end the systemic violence against LGBTQI people in detention and to create opportunities for their self-determination.
Mariposas Sin Fronteras was formed in 2011 by LGBTQI people within the immigrant rights movement in Arizona to end the systemic violence against LGBTQI people in detention and to create opportunities for their self-determination. Their work has three main components: direct support for LGBTQI immigrants in and out of immigration detention, campaigns against the criminalization of immigrants and LGBTQI people, and leadership development of formerly detained immigrants. At the local level, they have run campaigns to release individual LGBTQI people from detention and hold ICE accountable when people have faced additional violence in custody. They also organize with the broader immigrant rights and sex workers rights movements to end the detention bed quota, stop collaboration between Tucson police and border patrol during routine stops, and end the criminalization of trans women of color profiled under draconian local anti-prostitution laws. Since they were founded, they have raised over $50,000 in private donations to go towards a revolving bond fund to support LGBTQI people in detention. They have also expanded their arts and cultural organizing, developing creative partnerships with groups like CultureStrike and Vox Urbana to produce original artistic content informed and led by the experiences of LGBTQ people in detention, as well as supporting the leadership of undocumented LGBTQI artists themselves.