'Refuge' Screening with Luis Mancheno '13

A screening, Q & A and reception with Luis Mancheno ’13, LGBT asylum seeker turned immigration attorney – in his own words: “Latinx, Gay, Refugee, Immigrant, American, Lawyer.”

Luis is featured in a 25-minute episode of Refuge, a docuseries on the trials, triumphs and experiences of refugees and asylum seekers in the United States. In "Episode 6: Hombres Nuevos," Luis endures six months of conversion therapy with an anti-gay therapist, years of abuse, and an attempt on his life due to his sexual orientation in his native Ecuador. After fleeing to the U.S. in 2008, Mancheno is granted asylum in the United States. He graduates from Roger Williams University School of Law in 2013, becomes an immigration attorney at the Bronx Defenders, and now fights for the lives of other refugees. The episode includes coverage of Mancheno fighting President Trump’s Travel Ban against people from Muslim-majority countries.

In 2018, Luis was honored as RWU Law’s Alumni Champion for Justice. In 2017, he was selected as a New Yorker of the Year by the New York Times, as one of the 30 LGBTQ change-makers and rising stars in the country by NBC News, and as the LGBTQ activist of the year by the New York City Comptroller’s Office. Mancheno is one of the producers and the expert host of Martes De “Migra” (Immigration Tuesdays), a weekly community education segment on NY1Noticias, a local Spanish television channel in New York.

His story has been featured in the New York Times, NBC, CBS, and other major media outlets. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, Vox, CBS News, The Huffington Post, Them, Public Radio International and the Providence Journal.

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