Queens Transgender Advocate Pardoned By Gov. Cuomo

JACKSON HEIGHTS, QUEENS -- For the first time in decades, the New Year truly means a fresh start for one Queens transgender activist and sex trafficking survivor. A conviction from her past, whose threat of deportation long weighed heavy on her shoulders, will finally be left in 2017.

Lorena Borjas, 57, of Jackson Heights, was among dozens of people across the state - many of them immigrants - who were granted pardons by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday, just in time for the year's end.

The governor granted more than 60 pardons to people with nonviolent misdemeanor charges who'd kept their records clean for at least 10 years. Of those pardons, 18 were granted to immigrants like Borjas, who faced deportation or other immigrant-related challenges because of their convictions.

Borjas, a transgender woman from Mexico, has carried a fourth-degree criminal facilitation conviction with her since 1994. That conviction - and others for prostitution - stemmed from her time spent trapped in human trafficking. But although a Queens Criminal Court judge recognized Borjas as a trafficking victim, state limitations only allowed for her prostitution convictions to be vacated, according to the Transgender Law Center, who represents her.

The one conviction left has loomed over Borjas for decades, putting her in constant fear of deportation. That dread only heightened under a federal government increasingly targeting immigrants. Cuomo said his pardons were an attempt to make New York "more just, more fair and more compassionate" for immigrants amid the federal government's threats to "tear families apart with deportation."

The pardon will help keep Borjas safe from deportation - and allow her to pursue immigration relief - while she applies for for U.S. Citizenship, Cuomo said.

“With this pardon granted, I will no longer have to go to sleep at night, worrying that I will be deported back to a country that is no longer home,” Borjas said. "I will be able to live my life without stress and fear of immigration and I will be able to continue doing the work I do and help more vulnerable transgender women."

Borjas has become a well-known advocate in Queens for other transgender women who've survive trafficking and other abusive situations. Since escaping the world of sex trafficking, she's spent years walking the streets of Jackson Heights, dolling out condoms and food to those in need and connecting the trans women she meets with services and support, according to TLC.

The Queens advocate even set up a weekly HIV testing clinic in her home, and runs syringe exchange programs for trans women taking hormone injections, Cuomo said. She currently works as an educator at community health centers across New York City.

“Her generosity and self-sacrifice is well known throughout New York State and the country," said Lynly Egyes, TLC's litigation director, who represented Borjas. "I am thrilled for Lorena today and grateful that, after her years of selfless work helping others, New York State answered the call when she was in need.”

Lead photo by Mark Lennihan/Associated Press.