At the moment Texas is literally imprisoning people for caring for their trans children. The state is arresting parents who get their trans children life saving medical care, and taking their children from loving homes to abusive ones. Being imprisoned and having your family separated because of your gender identity is a serious violation of human rights that would warrant asylum abroad if there weren’t safe parts of the US these families could go to.
People leaving Texas to avoid going to prison for caring for their children have about as much choice in the matter as someone leaving Ukraine. If they stay they will be subject to significant violence perpetrated by the state on the basis of their or their children’s gender identity.
The biggest issue here is that unlike international refugees, such families wouldn’t be eligible for assistance on the other end after they’re forced to run. They could get to a safe place without work, housing, or medical care. Blue states need to do more to protect these families when they arrive. We need to make these families immediately eligible for medicaid, in-state benefits including unemployment insurance, to help them with temporary housing and some of the upfront costs for long term housing, and give them resources to help them find work and put their kids back in school.
We need a system to support people fleeing state violence and persecution in red states. The system should be able to help women who have had abortions and can’t return home without being subject to state violence, as well as families with trans children. We will need some checks to verify people’s claims of persecution, and ideally the verification system will also help families prepare the necessary paperwork to file asylum claims abroad if red states start trying to harass them even after they’ve left the state, and a Republican federal government allows such harassment and political violence.