Pardon Me.

Not as in “Beg you pardon” but as in I pardon you.

Being trans is hard, it is even harder if you don’t have a job or if your parents threw you out and you find yourself in a survival situation where you will do anything in order to live.

Queens Transgender Advocate Pardoned By Gov. Cuomo
The Jackson Heights transgender woman, whose conviction stems from being trapped in human trafficking, was among dozens pardoned Wednesday.
Jackson Heights Patch
By Danielle Woodward, Patch Staff
December 28, 2017

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.
She can now apply for citizenship now that her arrest and conviction was wiped off her record.
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.

My question is will ICE ignore her pardon? Will she still have deportation hanging over her head?

There are so many trans people who are in this predicament where they are forced into slavery on the streets by a pimp. I came face to face with a small part of the horror of what it means to be trans and a teenager when I was an intern and had to attend a meeting at Court Support Services Division (CSSD) where they were looking for a shelter for a trans teen who was forced to work the street.