Many transgender people from Latin America flee to the United States to get away from harassment and abuse in their home countries. Because migrant agricultural work is common among immigrants, it's likely that many of the same LGBT people who cross the border also end up performing agricultural work here in the U.S. NBC News recently profiled two transgender agricultural workers from Mexico, Valery and Flora, who discuss their work environments and "the layers of invisibility" both as LGBT Latinos and LGBT agricultural workers. Not only do these two women have to navigate their gender identities in their work environments, but they also live in fear of being deported and having to return to a place they left due to harassment and violence. Valery and Flora feel lucky to have the support of California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA), an organization that has helped provide resources and assistance to both women; CRLA helped Valery legally change her name, and let Flora know that in state of California, she has the legal right to use the bathroom at work that corresponds to her gender identity, rather than the male name on her working papers. U.S. immigration laws are already complex, and navigating these laws as a LGBT individual adds another layer of difficulty. Aaron Morris, the executive director of Immigration Equality, an LGBTQ immigration rights organization, acknowledges that the system is "stacked against" LGBTQ immigrants. To read the full article, click here.

There are many approaches taken by federal, state, and local systems that aim to fund education for immigrant students. The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) recently released a study that looks at the various approaches and programs that are in place to ensure funding extends to immigrant-oriented education. Almost 10% of U.S. elementary and secondary students speak English as a second language and are not yet fluent, and schools are struggling to accommodate these students. Local communities have in the past been the main source of education funding, but state resources are available to even out wealth disparities in different districts, and then federal funds step in to take care of any leftover gaps. Despite the fact that many states have used cost studies to determine how much funding districts need to reach educational goals, these studies rarely focus on the specific needs of immigrant students who speak English as a second language. MPI's report compares state-level policies with local-level policies that were gathered from administrators and policymakers from  California, Colorado, and New York, and ultimately provides recommendations for improvements to better fund immigrant education. To access the full report, click here.

For key resources and farmworker health guides, please refer to the Farmworker Health Network (FHN). The FHN is a group of six National Cooperative Agreements in migrant health funded through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide technical assistance and training to migrant health centers. Click here for a comprehensive list of FHN agencies.