Salt Lake City, UT – The detainment of Nicoll Hernández-Polanco is sparking protests across the country with Utah joining the fight. Nicoll Hernández-Polanco is a Guatemalan transwoman seeking asylum. However, she is currently being held in the Florence Service Processing Detention in Arizona. Hernandez-Polanco remains incarcerated in the men’s side of the detention center where she faces sexual harassment and assault.

In Salt Lake City, 20 activists rallied to support Nicoll Hernandez-Polanco at the Matheson Courthouse, rallying with signs and banners. Some wore striped prison shirts and zip ties binding their wrists in symbolic solidarity.

A. Romero of Stand for Queer Lives said, “This woman is being put in a men’s detention center. She’s being harassed by the guards as well as other detainees. Nicoll is not being treated like a human being or being treated with dignity as a woman.”

Protesters marched through downtown SLC on major streets chanting, “Transliberation is the goal! We demand, free Nicoll!” and “Money for jobs and education, not for ICE and deportation!”

Bárbara Ochoa said she came to the protest because, “I have a lot of family and friends who identify as trans and it’s important to show solidarity.” Ochoa went on to say that both undocumented and trans folk face unfair stigmatization, especially by police, border patrol and ICE. “There needs to be immigration reform because the U.S. is very difficult with recognizing amnesty.”

“It’s an UndocuQueer issue,” said Eusebio Echeveste, an organizer with Utah’s Familia TQLM, explaining that people who are both undocumented and Queer face particular hardships.

Echeveste continued, “We’re demanding justice, dignity and safety, not just for Nicoll, but for all transwomen, transmen, all our trans brothers and sisters.”

#SaltLakeCityUT #LGBTQ #PeoplesStruggles #immigrantRights #LGBTQRights #Antiracism #NicollHernándezPolanco