During Pride Month, The Govt Plans To Deport Lesbian Woman Who Challenged Immigration System

With only days to go until the end of Pride month, the Australian government is planning to deport a New Zealand-born lesbian who has lived here for more than 20 years.

Years after moving to the country as a 23-year-old, Kate Pearson was convicted on a series of drug and property offences, and sentenced to a prison term of four years and three months, resulting in the cancellation of her visa.

In 2022, Pearson challenged the cancellation, with the High Court finding that aggregate prison terms could not trigger automatic visa cancellations, under section 501 of the Migration Act.

As the legislation did not specifically include aggregate sentences when considering a “substantial criminal record”, Pearson and 163 other detainees were released from immigration detention. They returned to their lives, families and loved ones, thinking it was all over.

The Albanese government rushed to close the loophole, introducing the Migration Amendment (Aggregate Sentences) Bill in 2023.

After the bill was passed, Pearson’s visa, and those of hundreds of others, were cancelled again and she was forced back into immigration detention after only six months of freedom.

“It’s absolutely crazy that politicians are granted godlike powers,” Pearson said. “The minister has the power to cancel a person’s visa over and above the ruling of even the High Court, rendering our legal system a waste of time.”

Immigration Minister Tony Burke refused to consider her application for ministerial intervention, and Pearson is scheduled to be deported on Thursday 26 June.

Josephine Langbien, Associate Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre said visa status shouldn’t influence fair and equal treatment by the law.

“While citizens are punished once by our criminal legal system, migrants like Ms Pearson are punished three times – by prison sentences, prolonged immigration detention and then deportation,” she said. “Australia’s harsh visa cancellation regime destroys lives and rips families apart.

“By relentlessly targeting people like Ms Pearson for removal, including by undermining the courts, the Australian Government is seemingly more concerned with punishment than delivering fair and lawful visa decisions, even where someone has lived in Australia for decades and built a life here. This is not the standard of treatment that we should accept for anyone in Australia.”

Lack of compassion fuelled by government embarrassment 

During her time at Villawood, Pearson endured medical neglect, isolation from community, and a lack of access to legal support.

“The fear I had of coming back was actually awful,” she said. “I have never experienced anxiety or fear like that… thinking any minute they will come to the door and take me back to this place.”

The trauma of indefinite detention has contributed to Pearson’s stress-induced Multiple Sclerosis, for which she has been denied access to medical care on various occasions in Villawood Detention Centre.

Despite her health concerns and her decades-long ties to Australia, Minister Burke has refused to act in compassion.

“It is clear that Burke has refused this intervention because of the legislation change that Kate’s Federal court case influence, and how it exposed Australia’s immigration policy as unreasonable,” said Sydney-based activist group Pride in Protest.

David Shoebridge, the Greens spokesperson for Immigration, said major parties have created a deeply unfair immigration system, with centralised control lying with the Immigration Minister.

“Criminal justice matters should be dealt with by the justice system, not responded to through a political lens by the Department of Home Affairs or the Minister,” he said.

“We know that detention centres are privately-owned disaster sites and do untold damage to people’s lives. The current system has very little to do with justice and a lot to do with politics and scapegoating migrants.”

After years facing down an unjust legal system, Pearson has spent her time in Villawood studying immigration law, connecting with other queer and trans women in detention, using her knowledge to help them understand their own visa options.

Tomorrow, the government will rip Pearson from the life and community she’s built in Australia to deport her to a country she’s had no connection to for more than two decades.

“It was a long time to keep fighting and giving up was never an option,” she said.

“All I have put up with, all that’s happened and it was all for nothing”.

The Immigration Minister was contacted for comment but did not respond to Star Observer’s requests by time of publication.