During State of the Union, Trump Promoted More Deportations. One Couple’s Story Highlights the Human Toll.

In President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, he promised swift deportations and touted his administration’s immigration crackdown: “We’re getting them the hell out of here fast,” Trump said of migrants. “We don’t want them.”

As Trump spoke for nearly two hours, repeatedly invoking gory scenes of violence, Phoenix resident Sonia Almaraz was half a mile away thinking about her partner, Arbella “Yari” Marquez, who is detained at the Eloy Detention Center in central Arizona.

Over the years she has been locked up, Marquez’s leukemia has returned. She is now regularly vomiting blood and has lost more than 70 pounds, according to letters from Marquez and statements from her friends and loved ones.

To advocate for her, Almaraz traveled to the nation’s capital as a guest of Arizona Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari, who announced she would skip Trump’s address and instead attend the People’s State of the Union — an alternate event protesting the president that aimed to highlight the stories of constituents impacted by federal policy.

In a statement explaining her decision, Ansari said, “I’m skipping Trump’s State of the Union because I refuse to legitimize his corrupt, authoritarian regime.”

As politicians gathered in Washington, D.C., Marquez’s health “keeps on deteriorating,” Almaraz said.

While Marquez’s story has been highlighted in local media multiple times, one key aspect has been consistently downplayed or overlooked: the couple’s sexual identity. The reality for everyone in immigration detention is dangerous, and increasingly deadly, but queer people face particular hardship.

A 2024 report from the National Immigrant Justice Center found conditions for LGBTQ+ and HIV-positive people “routinely include high rates of physical and sexual violence, improper and prolonged solitary confinement, and inadequate medical care, among other forms of systemic abuse and neglect.” The report found that a third of all LGBTQ+ people surveyed suffered sexual abuse, physical assaults or sexual harassment. In Louisiana, queer migrants held in the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile said they were coerced into a forced labor program earning $1 a day while also being stalked and harassed by staff.

Marquez has received attention, most notably from Ansari, who has visited her twice in detention. After a November visit, the congresswoman said Marquez was too weak to stand on her own and vomited blood during the visit. Since then, conditions have not improved, according to Almaraz.

She said officials have taken Marquez to an oncologist, but she has not been provided proper treatment for her leukemia, lymphedema and arthritis.

“They just keep her on Tylenol,” she said, adding that Marquez went more than a month without her prescribed pain medication. “It’s medical neglect.”

“A death trap”

Before her detention, Marquez was deeply embedded in Phoenix’s LGBTQ+ community. She worked as a graphic designer, played bass in a band, DJed local events and helped run an LGBTQ+ zine. She and Almaraz met in 2013 through music: Almaraz sang and played bongos in the band where Marquez played bass.

“She loves her community,” Almaraz said. “She’s always been there for everybody.”

That connection to the community was severed last year, when Marquez, Almaraz and another friend were detained. Marquez was a lawful permanent resident who had lived in the United States for more than two decades with no criminal record when she was taken by Border Patrol last year after crossing the border from Mexico back into the United States. Another passenger in the car was undocumented, and all three were taken into custody — including Almaraz, who was later released after being detained four hours, she said.

Since then, Almaraz said, Marquez has been stripped of her green card.

Local advocacy groups such as Trans Queer Pueblo, a queer and immigrant rights group, have protested outside downtown Phoenix’s ICE facility, held press conferences and worked to elevate Marquez’s story in hopes of securing her release.

They and other advocates say the detention center — where two people have died in the last year — is unsuitable for someone with an advanced illness.

“Eloy Detention Center is a death trap, where LGBTQ people are segregated, denied adequate medical care, and forced into silence,” said Trans Queer Pueblo member Italia Miranda at a press conference last spring.

Since returning to the White House, the Trump administration has begun removing targeted protections for LGBTQ+ people in immigration detention. Immigration and Customs Enforcement changed requirements for how it treats detained transgender people. The agency also stopped providing information about how many transgender people it is detaining, even as reporting has revealed they suffer torturous mistreatment.

In December, Trans Queer Pueblo members stood outside the ICE processing center on Central Avenue in Phoenix and read from a letter Marquez had written describing her health:

“My health has worsened. I am nothing like I used to be, and I feel that even the sparkle in my life has disappeared,” Marquez wrote in the letter, a copy of which in Spanish was given to LOOKOUT. “I look in the mirror and tears roll down my cheeks when I see how much I have deteriorated … I am too pale and constantly have bruises all over my body. I feel weak and dizzy. My stomach hurts. My feet are always swollen, which prevents me from walking properly. My eyesight is getting worse. I feel like something is burning inside my kidneys, and lately, I’ve been vomiting blood on a daily basis.”

LOOKOUT has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security multiple times for comment on Marquez’s status and has not received a response.

“We just want her out.”

Almaraz and Marquez’s story was one of several highlighted during the People’s State of the Union this week, held on the National Mall.

In addition to Ansari’s decision to skip the speech, Tucson-based Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva also announced she would forego President Trump’s State of the Union address and give her guest ticket to a U.S. citizen of Somali descent, Mubashir Khalif Hussen, who was detained by federal immigration agents in Minnesota — a move intended to spotlight the human toll of escalating enforcement operations.

In a written statement, Grijalva said she could not “sit silently while Trump gaslights the American people with lies about how great everything is,” arguing that communities are living in fear and that the real state of the union should be protested, not applauded.

Across the country, roughly 70,000 people are currently held in immigration detention as the Trump administration pushes to expand capacity and meet aggressive arrest quotas. Administration officials have frequently described those targeted for detention as the “worst of the worst,” language that rankles families like Almaraz’s.

Each of those 70,000 people, Almaraz said, is someone’s partner, child or friend — a person ripped from a community.

“I just think I’m a voice not only for Yari, but for others in detention getting neglected,” she said. “Just to let them know — the medical neglect, the inhumane treatment they go through in detention centers. I just want to be a voice, let the people out here know how horrible are the conditions they live.”

At the People’s State of the Union, members of Congress who boycotted the president’s speech lifted up stories like Marquez’s — stories that rarely make it into the official address.

“We raise our voice not only for immigrants, but for LGBTQ people,” Almaraz said.

As the president spoke inside the Capitol, railing against migrants and outlining his vision for the nation, Almaraz held onto a simple hope.

“We just want her out.”

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