Annual reports Annual Report 2025
Mutual aid and support for members in detention
This section covers how QARAVAN, a community of LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other identities) immigrants, supported members in need in 2025: emergency assistance, everyday mutual aid, and support for members in detention, including 68 letters of support for asylum cases.
Emergency assistance
The community raised funds through four emergency campaigns to support members facing deportation, detention, and a cancer diagnosis. We limit the personal details shared about these campaigns to protect members’ privacy.
The everyday work
- 13 families moved from one home to another, with the essential furniture and food delivered to those who needed it
- Provided seven new mattresses and several air conditioners
- Provided Christmas trees for two families with children
- Suitcases and boxes stored for members living in shelters, until they had a place of their own
- Documents translated and notarized by volunteers: birth certificates, records, case files
- Helped members find paid project work
By September, more than $2,000 in emergency cash assistance had helped members meet urgent needs, alongside food, medicine, and funding for emergency legal support.
Support for members in detention
QARAVAN supported members in detention by funding legal defense, translating documents, gathering evidence, and preparing letters of support. QARAVAN does not provide legal services and has no lawyers; it refers members to attorneys.
Chingiz was released after QARAVAN funded legal support for his master hearing. Our support for Nikita and Katya continued into 2026, when their releases were reported.
We also wrote 68 letters for asylum cases, documenting country conditions and the risks members faced if they are deported against their will. Assistance with beds and documents continued after release.
Katya
Katya, a 26-year-old biotechnologist and LGBTQ+ activist, spent 21 months detained in Louisiana. She won protection from deportation in February 2025 but remained detained.
QARAVAN found a pro bono (free) lawyer for part of her case, and volunteers translated evidence. Russian Seattle for Freedom raised funds for the habeas lawyer (a habeas corpus petition asks a federal court to review whether a detention is lawful). By March 29, 2026, QARAVAN reported that she was free.
“I’m finally out - all thanks to your support and help. You can’t even imagine how deeply grateful I am to each and every one of you.”
Nikita
Nikita fled Russia with his partner in 2022 after years of persecution. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a federal agency, detained him in Brooklyn in April 2025; in September an immigration judge ordered him removed.
His partner and QARAVAN supported his case for almost a year. A community fundraising campaign covered attorney’s fees, and a habeas corpus petition challenged his continued detention. Nikita was released on February 25, 2026. His immigration case remained ongoing.
Volunteers also provided Russian–English interpretation at RIF Asylum Support’s Thursday legal consultations.