PRIDE OV E R F E A R S I N C E 1 974
I SS U E 8 • VO LU M E 5 4 • J U N E 2 5 , 2 0 26
US no longer safe for LGBTQIA+ refugees
A Gay Russian’s story of Queer and Transphobic abuse in ICE detention BY M A D I S O N J O N E S , S G N M A N AG I N G E D ITO R
According to the Legal Defense Fund, nearly 400,000 ICE arrests across all 50 US states were made during the first 10 months of Trump’s second term. As of April 2026 (the most recent TRAC Immigration data), over 60,000 people were reportedly being held in US detention centers, with 70.8% of detainees having no criminal record. Numerous reports from both US media sources and civil rights groups have since documented the poor and abusive conditions people living in detainment experience. But what still remains underexamined is the plight of LGBTQIA+ immigrants harassed and abused for their identities while being apprehended by ICE, as well as in these detention centers. Before Trump’s reelection, the National Immigrant Justice Center found in a June 2024 survey that “nearly all of the participants (35 out of 41) reported being targets of homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, racist, or other verbal and nonverbal abuse in ICE and CBP jails.” In addition, “approximately one third of survey participants (18 out of 41) reported sexual abuse, physical assaults, or sexual
harassment in immigration detention due to their LGBTQ identity.” Maksim Borisov is a 23-year-old Gay Russian refugee who was detained by ICE at the US-Mexico border in early 2025 while attempting to claim political asylum. He was released from the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona last March, after being held for 13 months. Now, he waits to have his asylum case heard by an immigration judge, while staying with family in Los Angeles. As of press time, ICE has still not returned any of Borisov’s legal documents (birth certificate, passport, etc.). He contacted the SGN to share his struggle, and that of other LGBTQIA+ detainees he befriended, at the hands of ICE and inside Eloy. Persecution in Russia Borisov told the SGN he left his home country of Russia in 2023 due to the relentless targeting he faced for his Gay identity. He said that while growing up on Sakhalin (an island north of Japan), the assaults on him and his family had been constant. “I’ve been, like, humiliated at school. I got beaten up by a lot of people because of my identity and that
STAR-STUDDED LIFELONG PRIDE GALA HIGHLIGHTS PG. 5
MAKSIM BORISOV WITH FRIENDS AT ELOY DETENTION CENTER, NOVEMBER 3, 2025 MAKSIM BORISOV
was really, really hard,” he said. Despite leaving the country years ago, he described how his family back home has still been targeted for him being Gay. “A few days ago, a person was trying to kill my mother with a knife,” he said. “And was yelling that her son was a faggot.” He explained that local Russian police were not sympathetic to his mother’s situation, and let the man go. In 2023, the Russian government passed a series of virulently antiQueer laws, including a ban on gender transition, and declared the “international LGBT movement” an “extremist organization” that incites social and religious discord. Russia today continues to rank as one of the most unsafe places for Queer and Trans people to live in Europe. Coming to America Initially, Borisov fled to Thailand because of its more friendly attitude and laws toward LGBTQIA+ people (as well as having friends there). However, his circumstances became precarious, because Thailand and Russia have an extradition agreement, which mandates that Thailand send people
convicted of crimes in Russia back to the country for trial. “While I was living in Thailand, the Russian authorities were monitoring my social media accounts and collecting my TikTok videos and other online content as evidence against me,” he said. Sensing that the Russian government was building a case, he felt that there was no other option but to seek political asylum in the US. In fact, the Russian government did formally open a criminal case against Borisov in October 2025, due to his alleged involvement with the “international LGBT movement,” alleged extremist activity for his support of Ukraine, and the “humiliation of human dignity” for supporting LGBTQIA+ rights — serious charges that Borisov said would cost him $7,000 and multiple years in prison. He explained how other members of his family were also targeted by the Russian government, and that his aunt and cousin asked him to join them in seeking asylum in the US together, since another relative was already liv-
SEE DETENTION PAGE 10
‘PRIDE SUITE’ COMPOSER VISITS VASHON PG. 15