Key Takeaways
• Oasis Legal Services has supported over 2,700 LGBTQ+ immigrants in Berkeley since 2017 with legal and social aid.
• EBSC’s OLAS LGBT Sanctuary Project offers Latinx LGBTQ asylum seekers bilingual retreats and healing-focused support groups.
• Trauma-informed, intersectional approaches address challenges from legal status, discrimination, HIV, language barriers, and cultural isolation.
LGBTQ+ immigrants who arrive in the United States 🇺🇸 face a series of hurdles that set them apart from other newcomers. This experience is often called being “doubly targeted.” These individuals face discrimination and threat both because of their immigration status and their sexual orientation or gender identity. In cities like Berkeley, California, this hardship becomes more visible. But amid the challenge, organizations like Oasis Legal Services step up to make a real difference in people’s lives.
Double Challenge: What Makes Life Harder for LGBTQ+ Immigrants
Most LGBTQ+ immigrants do not leave home by choice. They move because they face real dangers in their countries of origin—sometimes violence, sometimes being ignored by authorities when harmed, and sometimes harsh laws that criminalize who they are. These dangers make daily life unsafe, especially for those who are already marginalized due to their sexual identity or because they are living with HIV.
When they arrive in the United States 🇺🇸, life does not always become easier overnight. Many find that the problems follow them. There are new challenges such as confusing immigration laws, language barriers, and racism. The combination of these issues often leaves LGBTQ+ immigrants isolated and struggling to fit in—a problem described as being “doubly targeted.”
Nonprofits in places like Berkeley have started to recognize that LGBTQ+ immigrants need more than basic help. They need lawyers who understand their unique situations, access to safe housing, and support for health needs. They also need someone who believes their stories and helps them find a new path forward.
Oasis Legal Services: A Safe Harbor for the Marginalized in Berkeley
Oasis Legal Services, founded in 2017, is a nonprofit organization based in Berkeley that has become a lifeline for many LGBTQ+ immigrants. Their mission focuses on serving low-income people who have survived violence, discrimination, and other challenges because of their identities or their HIV status.
What Does Oasis Legal Services Do?
Oasis Legal Services takes a comprehensive approach. Their key services include:
- Legal Representation: Oasis helps LGBTQ+ immigrants apply for asylum, a status that lets people stay in the United States 🇺🇸 if returning home puts them in harm’s way. The nonprofit also handles complicated paperwork for green cards (which let you live and work permanently in the country), naturalization (the process of becoming a citizen), and VAWA petitions, which protect people from abuse by family members.
- Social Service Connections: Legal problems are only part of the journey. Many LGBTQ+ immigrants also struggle with finding work, a safe place to live, or medical care. Oasis connects clients with programs for housing, job opportunities, and healthcare—including help with HIV testing and treatment.
- Community Advocacy and Professional Training: Oasis is not alone in this effort. The organization belongs to more than a dozen state and national groups that fight for fair policies. They also train other legal and social workers in best practices when working with queer, trans, and HIV-positive immigrants.
- Changing Laws: Oasis helps individual clients, but they also try to fix unfair laws for everyone. They use impact litigation—cases that can set new rules—and encourage clients to become leaders and voices for change in their communities.
Since its founding, Oasis Legal Services has helped over 2,700 queer and trans immigrants. Each story is unique, but many share the same fear: what if I am sent back to a place where it is not safe for me to live openly?
As reported by VisaVerge.com, stories like these highlight the importance of organizations committed to both direct service and long-term social change.
How the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant Enhances the Safety Net
Oasis Legal Services is not the only organization working to help LGBTQ+ immigrants in Berkeley. The East Bay Sanctuary Covenant (EBSC) is another nonprofit providing key support. EBSC offers free or low-cost legal services, covering everything from asylum to help with benefits and mental health care.
One of EBSC’s unique efforts is the OLAS LGBT Sanctuary Project. This program focuses on creating healing spaces. Bilingual mental health experts run retreats and support groups aimed at Latinx LGBTQ asylum seekers—people who may feel especially isolated because of language or cultural barriers.
- At these retreats, people can speak their language and share their experiences without fear of judgment. Retreats focus on healing the trauma many faced back home and the stress of starting over in the United States 🇺🇸.
- EBSC also teaches newcomers about their rights at work, as well as ways to stay safe from hate crimes—problems that can still affect LGBTQ+ immigrants after they arrive.
The Ongoing Need: How Intersectional Challenges Add Up
Research in the Bay Area underlines how complex the situation can become for LGBTQ+ immigrants, especially people of color. They often face discrimination not just because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, but also because of their race and their immigration status. Many face poverty as well.
- Past and Present Trauma: Those who come to Oasis Legal Services or organizations like it are often still carrying the weight of what happened to them in their home countries. That past trauma is made worse by the stress of not knowing whether they will be allowed to stay in the United States 🇺🇸.
- Language and Cultural Barriers: Even within LGBTQ+ spaces, immigrants can feel out of place if they do not speak English fluently or are unfamiliar with American customs. Mainstream services sometimes do not account for these needs, leaving many clients feeling left out.
- The Power of Peer Support: Finding others who understand these challenges can be a relief. Peer support groups help LGBTQ+ immigrants share tips, offer comfort, and build resilience together.
Because of the way these challenges come together, single-focus solutions rarely work. Oasis Legal Services and similar groups use what is known as a trauma-informed approach. This means they recognize how trauma affects every part of a person’s life and work to make clients feel understood and safe from their first meeting.
Best Practices: Combining Legal and Social Support
Oasis Legal Services is part of a trend where legal advocacy is paired with social support. Instead of seeing clients as only legal cases, they look at the whole person. This means:
- Listening Beyond Legal Issues: Taking time to hear about a client’s experience as an immigrant and as an LGBTQ+ person. Listening carefully can make the difference between a successful asylum application and one that misses key details.
- Helping Clients Tell Their Story: When applying for asylum or other legal relief, telling one’s story clearly can be hard—especially if past trauma makes it tough to speak about certain events. Oasis helps clients shape their story in a way that is true but also understandable for immigration officials.
- Building Community: By encouraging participation in peer support and community advocacy, Oasis helps LGBTQ+ immigrants feel less alone and more confident in their futures.
These services give clients the best possible chance of not only winning their legal cases but also settling into Berkeley and starting a new chapter without fear.
Berkeley’s Broader Network: How Universities Add to the Safety Net
Help does not end at nonprofit doors. At UC Berkeley, students who are LGBTQ+ immigrants have some unique resources on campus.
- Gender Equity Resource Center: This center supports all students who have questions about gender or sexuality. They offer guidance on inclusivity and connect students to off-campus resources like Oasis Legal Services when needed.
- University Health Services: These services are tailored to be welcoming for LGBTQ+ students, especially those with immigrant backgrounds. Counseling is available to discuss trauma, coming out, cultural issues, or discrimination. Group sessions connect students so they can lean on each other for support.
Both on campus and off, these programs help create a patchwork of support that gives LGBTQ+ immigrants a better chance at building safe, healthy lives.
Advocating for Policy Change and Social Inclusion
Organizations like Oasis Legal Services and East Bay Sanctuary Covenant do more than address individual needs. They are also powerful voices for change in how systems handle LGBTQ+ immigrants.
- Training Law and Social Work Professionals: By teaching legal and social service providers about the special needs of queer and trans immigrants, these organizations make it more likely that people will meet helpers who understand them.
- Pushing for Fair Laws: Through court cases and community organizing, they work to change laws that unfairly target LGBTQ+ immigrants or make it impossible for them to get the protection they need. This kind of work helps not just those who walk through their doors, but many others far beyond Berkeley.
Many experts agree that this mix—direct support and policy advocacy—offers the best hope for lasting change.
Where to Go for More Help
If you or someone you know wants support, Oasis Legal Services explains its programs on its official website. For people looking for additional legal and community help in Berkeley, a list of resources—like East Bay Sanctuary Covenant—can also be found locally.
At UC Berkeley, the Gender Equity Resource Center and University Health Services are both available to guide students, answer questions, and connect them to other supports.
Looking Forward: What’s Next for LGBTQ+ Immigrants in Berkeley
The journey for LGBTQ+ immigrants is seldom easy, but the work of groups like Oasis Legal Services gives hope to many. Since 2017, their focus on both direct legal help and personal empowerment has already changed over 2,700 lives. By treating every client as a whole person and fighting for better laws, Oasis helps ensure that the hardships of the past do not have to define anyone’s future.
More organizations are likely to follow this path. As awareness grows of how immigration and LGBTQ+ issues overlap, the need for specialized care—legal, social, emotional—becomes even clearer. Cities like Berkeley show how a partnership between nonprofits, local governments, and universities can offer real support.
Still, challenges remain. Racism, financial hardship, and the threat of deportation all continue to weigh on LGBTQ+ immigrants. Many feel invisible or unwelcome both in mainstream immigrant circles and mainstream LGBTQ+ groups. Oasis Legal Services and its allies show that change is possible—one person, one court case, one community at a time.
In closing, what Berkeley’s nonprofits have built shows the power of focused, heart-driven support. For LGBTQ+ immigrants, finding someone who understands both their struggle and their strength can make all the difference between simply surviving and truly thriving. With more places adopting this inclusive model, there is hope that safety and acceptance can reach all corners of the country—and that no one will remain doubly targeted for long.
Learn Today
Asylum → A legal protection allowing individuals to remain in the U.S. if returning to their country endangers their safety.
VAWA Petition → A legal request under the Violence Against Women Act to protect immigrants abused by qualifying family members.
Impact Litigation → Court cases intended to create lasting policy change by challenging laws that affect entire communities.
Trauma-Informed Approach → A method of support that recognizes and addresses the impact of past trauma on clients’ current wellbeing.
Peer Support Groups → Gatherings where individuals with similar experiences, such as LGBTQ+ immigrants, provide mutual advice and encouragement.
This Article in a Nutshell
LGBTQ+ immigrants face unique, double discrimination—targeted for both identity and immigration status. Berkeley’s Oasis Legal Services delivers trauma-informed legal and social support, helping over 2,700 since 2017. Programs like EBSC’s OLAS provide bilingual, culturally sensitive care. As advocacy grows, intersectional support networks offer hope for real, lasting change.
— By VisaVerge.com
Read more:
• Pegasus Airlines and University of California Berkeley team up on aviation innovation
• Berkeley may fund immigration legal aid centers to meet rising need
• ICE Raid Stopped Cold at Central California Strawberry Plant
• Democrats stand firm on undocumented immigrant healthcare in California
• Duke University urges caution on international travel for students
