Help Joaris Stay Safe and Healthy while her Asylum Case is Pending

Joaris is a transgender woman from El Salvador who has survived horrific violence and loss at the hands of the MS 13 gang. In early 2016, gang members brutally raped her at gun point repeatedly and tried to force her to become a drug mule, threatening her life. When she refused and tried to go to the police, but gang members bribed police in front of her.

Fearing she would be killed, Joaris fled to Mexico. But the gang didn't stop looking for her. In June 2016, gang members shot up the house where Joaris was raised, searching for her. Her cousin fled to another part of El Salvador for safety, but when she returned two years later, she was immediately shot and murdered. In December 2020, while Joaris was already in the United States waiting for asylum, the gang tortured and dismembered her brother-in-law trying to find out where she was.

Mexico offered no safety either.

In Mexico, Joaris was exploited by a local government official who forced her to perform hard labor on his ranch as a way to “prove” to her she was a man. He threatened to have her jailed or deported back to El Salvador if she tried to leave him, and hid her legal documents to trap her. She managed to escape him, but in 2020, she and a new partner received death threats for at gunpoint for being perceived as gay. Then her friend, also a transgender woman, was murdered. She and her partner went to the U.S. border and informed Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers they needed to seek asylum in the U.S. or they would be killed.

In the United States, for the first time, Joaris has been able to live.

Since being released from an ICE detainment facility in Las Vegas and moving to New York City, Joaris has lived openly as a transgender woman for the first time in her life. She is receiving treatment for HIV and PTSD — conditions that require consistent, ongoing care that would be inaccessible or life-threatening to manage if she were forced to return. She has built community, engaged in advocacy, and dedicated herself to supporting other LGBTQ+ people.

But she has been waiting for asylum protection for over five years, and the court has refused to restart her asylum clock, meaning she has been unable to legally work. The financial pressure of that wait is relentless.

Despite not being able to legally work, Joaris tries to contribute back to the United States and her community. She volunteers her time to local advocacy groups, takes free English classes in the hope that she will someday be a citizen, and adopted a stray kitten so it wouldn’t be on the street.

This fundraiser will help Joaris cover:

- HIV medications and specialist care

- Mental health treatment for PTSD

- Transportation to medical and court-related appointments

- Housing, food, and utilities

She cannot go back. The gang that raped her, murdered her cousin, and dismembered her brother-in-law is still looking for her. She has undergone breast surgery and cannot conceal her transgender identity, meaning she would be immediately visible and immediately at risk the moment she set foot in El Salvador. The medical care she depends on to survive does not meaningfully exist for her there.

What Joaris needs right now is the stability to keep going — to stay housed, stay healthy, and stay here while her case moves forward.

Please donate what you can. Every dollar matters. And if you can't give, please share.

Joaris has held on through extraordinary hardship. Help her hold on a little longer.