The Trump administration’s wholesale assault on immigrants living and working in the U.S. — whether undocumented or here legally — has arguably made household names of immigrants like Mahmoud Khalil, Andry Hernández Romero, and Kilmar Ábrego García. But the stories of so many other immigrants, particularly those fleeing anti-LGBTQ+ persecution in their home countries, routinely go untold.

These five documentaries, released between 2007–2020, offer a glimpse into some of those stories. From the plight of bi-national same-sex couples prior to the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision to a brave group of trans women who trekked through Mexico to reach the U.S. border during the Biden Administration, they show what is all too often missing from the debate around immigration: the experiences and perspectives of immigrants themselves.

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Through Thick and Thin (2007)

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Filmed and released nearly a decade before the Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell decision, director Sebastian Codoba’s 2007 film is a time capsule depicting the challenges bi-national same-sex couples faced before marriage equality.

Tracking seven gay and lesbian couples and their families, the intimate film explores their struggles to stay together at a time when the U.S. government did not recognize same-sex relationships at all, let alone for the purposes of immigration sponsorships.

Almost two decades later, as Republican lawmakers push for the Supreme Court to reconsider Obergefell, Cordoba’s film stands as a poignant reminder of the potential consequences for LGBTQ+ immigrants in bi-national relationships and the U.S. citizens they love if marriage equality should ever be overturned.

Forbidden: Undocumented and Queer in Rural America (2016)

As Moises Serrano declares in Forbidden: Undocumented and Queer in Rural America, he is queer, undocumented, and unafraid.

Director Tiffany Rhynard’s 2016 documentary provides a stirring portrait of the then-22-year-old activist as he fights for long-delayed immigration reform like the DREAM Act, which would provide a pathway to citizenship for people like him, who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children and have never known any other home.

Through interviews and intimate footage, the film also delves into Serrano’s personal experience, both as a Dreamer denied acceptance to college because of his citizenship status, and as an out gay man fighting for his rights in rural North Carolina.

Unsettled: Seeking Refuge in America (2019)

The subjects of director Tom Shepard’s 2019 film Unsettled — a lesbian couple from Angola, a cis gay man from Syria, and a gender non-conforming queer many from the Congo — came to the U.S. fleeing persecution and violence in their home countries.

What they found here was an immigration system riddled with red tape and a political climate under the first Trump administration growing ever more hostile to refugees and asylum seekers. T

he film follows all four as they navigate those turbulent waters, and struggle to keep a foothold in the increasingly expensive “queer mecca” of the San Francisco Bay Area. As NPR’s Ari Shapiro noted, Unsettled shows that for LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, the struggle doesn’t end once they make it to the U.S.

The Infiltrators (2019)

A fascinating documentary-narrative thriller hybrid, directors Cristina Ibarra and Alex Rivera’s The Infiltrators combines interviews, real-life audio recordings, and news footage with dramatic reenactments to tell the true story of two young Dreamers who purposely had themselves taken into custody to help other undocumented immigrants being held in a Florida detention center.

Set in 2012, against the backdrop of President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign, the film follows Marco Saavedra and Viridiana Martinez (played by actors Maynor Alvarado and Chelsea Rendon), activists with the now defunct National Immigration Youth Alliance, as they wage a secret campaign from inside the Broward Detention Center to connect the men and women being held there with the resources they need to get released.

The Right Girls (2021)

In 2018, Valentyna, Joanne Stefani, and Chantal, three transgender women fleeing discrimination and violence in their home countries, met when they joined a migrant caravan traveling from the southern tip of Mexico to the U.S. The trio was part of a group of other trans women who banded together for safety and community as they continued to face harassment on their 2,400-mile trek.

Filmmaker Timothy Wolfer traveled alongside these women, capturing their journey and the unbreakable bond they formed along the way in this heartrending and uplifting documentary about what trans asylum seekers will endure for the promise of life in which they can just be themselves.

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