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Paola and Osiris are two transgender migrants currently detained and facing deportation orders. They arrived in Argentina from Peru more than 10 years ago, seeking a better future. Organizations denounce the recent Decree of Necessity and Urgency (DNU) 366/2025 , which substantially modifies the Migration Law, stating that it "expands and intensifies the persecution of migrants."

Both are sex workers and lived, until their arrest, in Constitución, a neighborhood plagued by institutional violence, crime, and the persecution of workers in the informal economy . The combination of being transgender, migrant, poor, and a sex worker makes them easy targets for fabricating cases and criminalizing them for drug possession and dealing. They represent the weakest, yet most visible, link in a drug trafficking chain that, deep down, no one wants to investigate .

Migrant groups in Argentina are denouncing the new Emergency Decree (DNU), published at the end of May, for criminalizing the migrant population, especially those from neighboring countries. In a document signed by more than 20 organizations, they stated that the decree “restricts the rights of migrants that the National Constitution recognizes for all inhabitants of the country, based on false data, sowing prejudice, without arguments—much less for reforming a law without going through Congress—and ignoring the reality of migration in Argentina.”

Osiris

Osiris is 38 years old and has lived in Argentina for 10 years. From there, she helped her family in Peru until she was scammed and lost her home and belongings. This personal situation affected her so deeply that she suffered from depression and relapsed into substance abuse. On May 28, she was arrested under the Narcotics Law. 

The National Directorate of Migration requested her detention because in 2018 Osiris was sentenced to four years in prison and fined for possession of narcotics with intent to distribute. Based on Decree 70/2017, issued under the government of Mauricio Macri, her permanent expulsion from the country was ordered. However, due to frequent changes of address within the community to which Osiris belongs, she could not be notified. Following a recent request from the Directorate of Migration, Federal Judge Walter Lara Correa authorized her detention “for the sole purpose of finalizing her expulsion from the country.” 

Osiris was detained by personnel from the Argentine Federal Police's Migration Affairs Division and taken to the PFA station located between Cavia Street and Figueroa Alcorta Avenue. Her public defender, from the Migrant Commission of the Public Defender's Office , filed an asylum application with the Immigration Department based on her gender identity. Red Cross and the City Ombudsman's Office are also involved, providing support to the trans woman.

“Once a week she contacts me, telling me that she doesn’t have access to her hormones and that she has a bad case of the flu because it’s so humid there. She says she doesn’t have hygiene products and feels very depressed because, well, all of this has prevented her from taking care of her appearance as she would like,” Melina Sánchez, a member of the socio-legal support team at Casa Roja Presentes .

“My roots are here” 

Paola is 40 years old and has identified as a trans woman since she was 14. She came to Argentina from Peru when she was 26 “for a better future,” she says. She has worked various jobs: as a sex worker, washing clothes, and most recently selling secondhand clothing at flea markets. On May 20, she was arrested in a raid and held for 24 hours at a police station. Immigration intervened and also requested her deportation due to a prior conviction. She was then transferred to her home, where she was placed under house arrest with an electronic monitoring bracelet. From this place, which she rents with her stepfather, she spoke with Presentes last week, days before being arrested again.

Regarding the possibility of her deportation and return to Peru, Paola doesn't know what to expect . “I have nowhere to stay there. My future would be uncertain because I honestly don't know what I would do, and as I tell many people, I have a life here, my roots are here, I bought my things, I have my dogs, my partner, and my friends. My stepfather lives here,” she shared with this agency. She added, “Here, trans women pay for a room, we pay taxes: internet, electricity, water, VAT. Migrants, like Argentinians, contribute a bit to the economy.”

She also described the situation in Peru for the trans community: “They are very offensive. They don't tolerate trans women, gay men, or effeminate people, as they call them. Many women have been killed. We don't have the support of the government or the state either. We don't have a Gender Identity Law . They call us by the names on our documents.” In Peru, last year the Ministry of Health published a supreme decree that included transsexuality as a mental illness. Furthermore, on December 7th, a massive march “For Life and Family” took place to demand that a bill on civil unions for same-sex couples not be debated in Congress.

“Many of our sisters leave their countries of origin, expelled by their families. Here, they build new families within the community—other migrant mothers and sisters, transvestites, trans people. Due to the current economic crisis under the Javier Milei government and the escalation of police violence in the Constitución neighborhood, the raids and harassment by the police, they are increasingly experiencing unemployment and a lack of money, which also leads to a scarcity of sex work,” Sánchez explained, regarding the situation faced by the migrant transvestite community in Argentina.

Criminalization

The trans and travesti community in Argentina is the most visible link in the drug trafficking chain, commonly referred to as "scapegoats." Anti-drug policy focuses on targeting this sector to fill police stations and prisons with people accused of minor offenses, instead of addressing the root of the problem. In this regard, between 2002 and 2017, the number of people incarcerated under the Narcotics Law increased by 252%. Drug law violations are the leading cause of incarceration for women and trans people in Argentina, according to data from the National System for the Execution of Sentences (SNEEP), which is part of the report by the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) entitled "The War on Drug Trafficking ." Specifically, in 2017, 43% of women (1,561) and 70% of all trans people (89) were imprisoned for these offenses.

In 2022, a ruling developed with a gender perspective and an intersectional approach, in a landmark decision, recognized the vulnerable situation of the trans community. Judge Sabrina Namer, of the Federal Oral Court No. 8, acquitted twenty trans women and the husband of one of them of drug trafficking charges, finding that the defendants were in situations of extreme vulnerability. She further concluded that this vulnerability was directly related to the crime with which they were charged.

DNU 366/2025

Various organizations denounced that the decree by Javier Milei's government, which modifies the Migration Law, seriously restricts the rights of migrants and consider that "it seems to emulate the xenophobic and arbitrary measures of the United States" also carried out by decree. 

In this regard, the "arguments" presented in the Emergency Decree "reach extremes of ignorance on the subject, alluding to the US deportation policy as a potential risk of migrant invasions into Argentina after being deported from the United States," they shared in a statement. The majority of migrants subject to deportation from the United States come from Mexico, India, China, the Philippines, and El Salvador—countries of origin that do not make up the Argentine migrant community, which is mostly South American (Paraguay 27%, Bolivia 17.5%, and Venezuela 8.4%).

The Emergency Decree establishes new requirements for obtaining Argentine citizenship and increases the grounds for expulsion from the country, including having convictions, a criminal record, or being caught in the act. “Regarding the security arguments mentioned in the decree, it should be noted that there has been no increase in the percentage of the migrant population in Argentina’s prison system; in fact, it has remained constant between 5 and 6% over the last twenty years,” stated the document signed by more than 20 organizations.

Among other issues, the decree also affects access to public healthcare and spreads misinformation regarding public education. It stipulates that, except in emergencies, foreigners must have health insurance or pay for healthcare services in public hospitals, and that only permanent residents will be eligible for free care. Furthermore, the decree alleges an overrepresentation of migrants in Argentine public universities based on biased data. The percentage of migrant students enrolled in undergraduate programs at public universities is 3.9%. 

The Emergency Decree grants unprecedented powers to the National Directorate of Migration. “An administrative employee of Migration has prosecutorial powers, even though they are not trained to judge, prosecute, criminalize, and decide who can and cannot live in Argentina. Now, Migration (the Executive Branch) works with the Judiciary to review the residency status of every migrant. This decree expands and deepens the persecution of migrants, greasing the wheels of the mechanisms left in place by Decree 70/2017” (from the Mauricio Macri administration), Sánchez explained. 

“They attack the migrant identity, primarily from neighboring countries, because in doing so they attack the idea that Argentina is truly diverse, that it is truly Black, that it is truly Indigenous, that it is truly mixed-race. This is also an attack on the identity of the Argentine nation and the working class, because in reality, that is who we, the migrant population, are,” he concluded.