NON-PEER-REVIEWED
https://doi.org/10.51897/interalia/SADZ2299
An Analysis of Immigration and Asylum Experiences: Trans Identity, Colonialism and Spiritual Responsibility in the United States
Seven Alexander Gardner
Abstract
This paper examines the entangled dynamics of immigration, trans identity, and colonial power in the contemporary United States, arguing that both asylum systems and gender-based marginalization are shaped by enduring imperial structures. Through a postcolonial and theological lens, it reveals how U.S. immigration practices reproduce colonial hierarchies by criminalizing non-white and gender-nonconforming bodies, especially transgender migrants from the Global South. Drawing on frameworks such as biopower, necropolitics, and intersectionality, the paper analyzes how trans asylum seekers are systematically dehumanized through detention, bureaucratic exclusion, and religious silence. It critiques the colonial imposition of binary gender systems and the epistemological violence that demands trauma as a condition for legitimacy. While liberation theology has long offered a moral critique of economic injustice and migration, it often overlooks the specific experiences of trans people. By integrating the insights of trans theologians, the paper advocates for an expanded liberative praxis—one that is intersectional, incarnational, and spiritually grounded. Ultimately, it calls for a decolonial theology in which trans migrants are not only defended but also embraced as sacred witnesses and agents of divine resistance.
Keywords: trans, postcolonialism, liberative, theology, asylum, immigration
