My Portfolio
A bird trapped in ICE detention: What it's like inside the largest immigrant prison
A bird trapped in ICE detention: What it's like inside the largest immigrant prison
A bird trapped in ICE detention: What it's like inside the largest immigrant prison
"Marvin lets out a madge-madge-madge and then stops, as if his voice has been impeded by the prison walls. There is a loneliness about a bird unanswered." Salon.com
What Progressives Are Getting Wrong About Bisexual Discrimination
A bird trapped in ICE detention: What it's like inside the largest immigrant prison
A bird trapped in ICE detention: What it's like inside the largest immigrant prison
"The structure and ideology of anti-bisexuality is thoroughly embedded in all our systems and persists even in the absence of individual bad actors." Newsweek
Don’t stop with family separation. End the whole immigration prison system
A bird trapped in ICE detention: What it's like inside the largest immigrant prison
Don’t stop with family separation. End the whole immigration prison system
"We already have a more humane and less expensive response to migration that does not involve tearing kids from parents. It is time that we implement it." Los Angeles Times
Rachael Lennon’s Wedded Wife Is The Queer History of Marriage We All Need Right Now, Hollywood Progressive, March 2024.
California is a leader in marriage equality. But there's more the state can do, San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 2025. (PDF)
Top 10 Misrepresentations of Bisexuals on Screen, Hollywood Progressive, Oct. 2024.
What Progressives Are Getting Wrong About Bisexual Discrimination, Newsweek, June 2024.
Lucy & LaMer Talks Bi Folk-Pop Stardom, New Music Out, Hollywood Progressive, June 2024.
This Drag Artist is Breaking Binary Boundaries, Hollywood Progressive, November 2023
News Media Has Largely Erased Bi+ People: We Can Change That, and Here’s How, LA Progressive, October 2023
A Way to Address LGBTQ+ Mental Health Disparities, LA Progressive, April 2023
Why Disney’s Lip Service to LGBTQ+ People is No Longer Enough, CalMatters, Mar. 2022
The Immigration Hotline in OITNB Is Real — and So Is the Trouble Surrounding It, InStyle Magazine, July 2019
Kamala Harris's DONE Act is the right alternative to ICE detention, The Hill, July 2019
In Immigration Lockups, Hate Speech Means More Than Just Words, Colorlines, July 2019
State Attorney General’s report draws attention to abuses at Theo Lacy, OC Register, Mar. 2019
Small but powerful amendment could lessen immigration detention, The Hill, Jan. 2019
A bird trapped in ICE detention: What it’s like inside the largest immigrant prison in the US, Salon.com, July 2018
Don't stop with family separation. End the whole immigration prison system, Los Angeles Times, June 2018
Here’s One Solution to Keep Families Together — And We Know It Works, InStyle Magazine, June 2018
California stopped expansion of abusive ICE detention. Congress can, too, Sacramento Bee, May 2018
Immigration detention in the United States denies basic human freedoms, Los Angeles Times, Mar. 2018
Trump doesn’t want Californians to know what’s happening inside immigrant jails, Orange County Register, Mar. 2018
Santa Ana’s jail should be closed and repurposed, Orange County Register, Feb. 2018
Private Immigrant Prisons In California Now Subject To Public Records Act, The Huffington Post, Jan. 2018
If you want to end sexual violence, start with prisons, The Hill, Dec. 2017
The Santa Ana City Jail is in violation of the law, federal report finds, Orange County Register, Dec. 2017
Do We Have To Abolish The Victim Narrative To Abolish Immigration Detention?, The Huffington Post, Sept. 2017
ICE Violates First Amendment Rights Of 60 Faith Leaders And Attorneys, The Huffington Post, June 2017
California Just Outlawed Immigration Detention Expansion, The Huffington Post, June 2017
Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown will be deadly, USA Today, May 2017
U.S. Government Abruptly Removes Damning Detention Inspection Report From Its Website, The Huffington Post, May 2017
Report Reveals Widespread Sexual Assault In Immigration Detention, The Huffington Post, May 2017
Santa Ana’s motto: Jails not schools, Orange County Register, April 2017
Trump Administration Restricts Access To Immigration Detention Facilities, The Huffington Post, Mar. 2017
Has Trump Outlawed Immigration Advocacy?, The Huffington Post, Feb. 2017
Sheriff Hodgson is the next Joe Arpaio, South Coast Today, Jan. 2017
Santa Ana Is Not A Sanctuary City (Yet), The Huffington Post, Dec. 2016
We Can Stop Trump's Deportation Force. Here's How. The Huffington Post, Nov. 2016
Costly, Inefficient And Unaccountable: The Case For Outlawing For-Profit Prisons, Forbes, Sept. 2016
California has the opportunity to lead the nation with dignity, not detention, Orange County Register, Sept. 2016
Immigrant detainees deserve to be treated with dignity, Los Angeles Times, Aug. 2016
Poetry Book Fights Isolation in Immigration Detention, The Huffington Post, April 2016
End law enforcement violence against trans women, The Hill, Feb. 2016
Stop State-Sanctioned Sexual Assaults in Santa Ana, Voice of OC, Feb. 2016
Trapped in detention, transgender immigrants face new traumas, MSNBC, Aug. 2015
President Obama: Release Jewish Homeschooling Family Imprisoned in the United States, The Huffington Post, Aug. 2015
Stop detaining immigrants at Adelanto, The Hill, July 2015
End immigration detention of LGBTQ, The Hill, July 2015
GEO Group Whistleblower Exposes First Amendment Violations, Lack of Officer Training, and Poor Conditions at the Adelanto Detention Center, The Huffington Post, May 2015
Celebrating 25 Years of Children's Rights, From Inside Immigration Detention, The Huffington Post, Nov. 2014
Adelanto's Unlimited Prison Possibilities, The Huffington Post, Aug. 2014
One Man's Fight for Freedom Spurs Detention Reform, The Huffington Post, Mar. 2014
Obama’s Immigration-Lockup Quota, Washington Times, Jan. 2014
How ICE's Privacy Standards Hurt Immigration Reform, The Huffington Post, Nov. 2014
Who Is Overseeing Immigration Detention? The Huffington Post, July 2013
Detained U.S. Veteran on Hunger Strike at Eloy Detention Center, The Huffington Post, July 2013
Former Detained U.S. Hiker Sarah Shourd Speaks out Against Immigration Detention, The Huffington Post, June 2013
The Invisible Problem of Immigration Detention, Jurist, Jan. 4, 2013
Check out more on my Muck Rack page.
Intrinsically Me (Short Fiction), Bi Women Quarterly, Sept. 2023
Immigration Cyber Prisons: Ending the Use of Electronic Monitoring (Cardozo Law, 2021).
How Private Prisons Are Exacerbating COVID-19 in the US & Beyond in COVID-19 Impacts on Immigration Detention: Global Responses, pgs. 58 – 59 (Western Sydney University Press, 2020).
“Let Us In: An Argument for the Right to Visitation in U.S. Immigration Detention” in Immigration Detention, Risk and Human Rights, pgs. 251 – 278 (Springer Press, 2016).
Partnoy, Alicia, and Christina Fialho, editors. Call Me Libertad: Poems Between Borders. Freedom for Immigrants (formerly CIVIC), 2016.
- PRAISE FOR CALL ME LIBERTAD: "The telling and transmission of these experiences plays a vital role in bringing about understanding, change, and there affirmation of human dignity." - Jamie Asaye FitzGerald, Poets & Writers
- "This book reminds all people in detention and their families that they are not alone, and they are not forgotten. Even more, the collective power of these voices shines a light of hope on a dark, unjust practice." - Sarah Shourd, Author of A Silver of Light: Three Americans Imprisoned in Iran
“A Model Immigration Detention Facility for LGBTI?,” Forced Migration Review – Oxford University Press, No. 42 – Sexual orientation and gender identity and the protection of forced migrants, 50-51, 2013.
“Rethinking Pre-removal Immigration Detention in the United States: Lessons from Europe and Proposals for Reform,” Refugee Survey Quarterly – Oxford University Press, 31:69-100, 2012.
“Immigration Detention: U.S. Policy & Legal Framework.” Global Detention Project at Graduate Institute of Geneva, 2010.
Over the course of my career, I have researched and wrote dozens of reports for both peer-reviewed publications and movement audiences. Here are just a few samples:
Bi+ Narratives: A Guide to Authentic Representation in Storytelling, Rewrite the BiLine, 2024.
Bi+ Censorship in the News, Rewrite the BiLine, 2023.
Immigration Detention is Psychological Torture: Strategies for Surviving Our Fight for Freedom, Freedom for Immigrants, 2019.
Rebuilding Trust: A Case Study for Closing & Repurposing Immigration Detention Facilities (2018), Freedom for Immigrants (formerly CIVIC), 2018.
Persecuted in U.S. Immigration Detention: A National Report on Abuse Motivated by Hate, Freedom for Immigrants, 2018.
Systemic Indifference: Dangerous & Substandard Medical Care in Immigration Detention, Human Rights Watch, 2017.
Immigration Detention the Media: Missing Migrant Voices and the Need for Humanistic Storytelling, Freedom for Immigrants, 2017.
Sexual Assault in Immigration Detention, Freedom for Immigrants, 2017.
Illegal Strip Searches at the Santa Ana City Jail, Freedom for Immigrants, 2016.
Script Consultant, Orange Is The New Black | 2019
Producer, “Detention Stories: Life Inside California’s New Angel Island” | Six animated video shorts featuring audio recordings of people in immigration detention | Funded by Cal Humanities, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities | 2014
Project Director, “Drawings By Themselves: Portraits of America” | Multi-media videos shorts and art installation | Premiered at the Ambulante Film Festival in Mexico & Screened at the United Nations in New York City | 2014
Co-Producer, “34,000 Sold: How Human Rights Are Traded for Profit in the United States” | Animated video short | Winner of the Audience Choice Award at Re3StoryHack & Featured on Upworthy | 2013
Media & Speaking Appearances
MSNBC Interview On Netflix's Orange Is The New Black
MSNBC Interview On Netflix's Orange Is The New Black
MSNBC Interview On Netflix's Orange Is The New Black
MSNBC Interview on Immigrant Family Separation
MSNBC Interview On Netflix's Orange Is The New Black
MSNBC Interview On Netflix's Orange Is The New Black
John F. Kennedy Library Speech & Panel Discussion
MSNBC Interview On Netflix's Orange Is The New Black
John F. Kennedy Library Speech & Panel Discussion
Moderator, University of Southern California's Jacobson Family Sustainable Impact Lecture Series
Closing Keynote Panelist, Kelley School of Business' 18th Annual Social Entrepreneurship Conference
Keynote Speaker, George Washington School of Medicine’s 4th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture
Keynote Speaker, YWCA of Greater Cincinnati’s 2020 Annual Racial Justice Breakfast
Speaker, NEXUS Global Summit on Bridging Communities of Wealth and Social Entrepreneurship
Panelist, “Broken Barriers: Protecting Immigrant & Refugee Rights,” Clinton Global Initiative University
Panelist, “Dignity Denied: LGBT Immigrants in U.S. Detention,” Center for American Progress
Trainer, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Detention Monitoring Convening
Social Impact in Hollywood Begins with Community, USC Marshall News
San Diego Judge Upholds State Ban on Private Immigration Detention Center, Los Angeles Times
Judge restores immigrant-detention hotline featured in ‘Orange Is the New Black’, Los Angeles Times
Undocumented Youth in Immigration Facilities Face Unique Challenges, Teen Vogue
ICE Force-Feeds Detainees Who Are on Hunger Strike, New York Times
Inside Miguel’s Political Awakening, Rolling Stone Magazine
Christina Fialho on Increases in Deportation, BBC World News
California bans for-profit prisons and immigrant detention facilities, Los Angeles Times
Kamala Harris Wants to Stop ICE Detention—and This L.A. Org Has Her Back, LA Magazine
US Ice officers 'used torture to make Africans sign own deportation orders', The Guardian
Miguel’s “Now” Video Is a Powerful Statement on the Injustice of Immigrant Detention, Remezcla
California to end its use of private, for-profit prisons, The AP
Trump closes doors to immigrants, some US citizens open them, The AP
Here Is Just Some of the Hateful Abuse Immigrants Face in Detention Centers, The Nation
California Group Gives Voice To Detained Immigrants, NPR
If You're Abused in Immigration Detention, the Government Doesn't Care, NBC News