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Response letter to Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) arrest

Description:
Handwritten letter on lined yellow paper, stapled: "My name is Jesus Reyes and I've just been arrested by the INS. Now they want to deport me because I have AIDS. I came to this rally today because as a gay man and as a person with AIDS I wanted to support this struggle against death, this struggle for life. I didn't expect to find the immigration police here, but here they were. Now they're certain to send me back to Mexico where all that waits for me is an early death. Since I've come to this country in 1981 I worked very hard. For the first couple of years I worked two jobs where I still live, in the Mission. I've always tryed to send back as much money as I could to my family in Mexico, things are so bad there they're almost [...]"
Attribution:
Courtesy of the GLBT Historical Society Jorge CortiƱas Papers
Date:
1990
Exhibit Tags:
letters, INS, Immigration, HIV/AIDS, pwa, gay men, protest, deportation, San Francisco, and GLBTHS