ICE Detention of Trans and Nonbinary People

May 14, 2024

From Immigration Justice Campaign

We recently filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) about the way Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) treats people who are transgender and nonbinary in detention. They have shown that they cannot safely detain trans and nonbinary people, and we are demanding that they stop doing it.

Please contact DHS to help pressure them to follow through and take urgent action.

Many trans and nonbinary people are seeking safety in the United States precisely because of the violence and trauma they’ve experienced due to their gender identities. Often, they come asking for protection only to be locked in an ICE detention center where they are denied critical medical care, put into solitary confinement, misgendered, deadnamed, and assigned to inappropriate cells—for example, transgender women being locked up in an all-male facility. They face transphobic threats and harassment, including from staff members who are charged with their safety and wellbeing. ICE has a specific policy for the detention of trans individuals, but it is woefully inadequate. At Aurora, it is also not being followed.

ICE does not have a policy for how best to accommodate the needs of nonbinary people in its custody. As long as ICE detains nonbinary people, it must create enforceable guidelines for staff to follow in all facilities across the country.

We developed this complaint in collaboration with our partners the National Immigration Project and the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, and with five individuals who are detained at the Aurora Contract Detention Facility in Colorado.

Some of the things these individuals told us include:

A nonbinary and transgender individual who wants to start hormone treatment was told that if they started therapy, they would be placed into solitary confinement because the facility has no nonbinary or men’s transgender housing unit. When this individual sought housing in a dorm with other trans people, staff told them they had to have a “boy part” (meaning a penis) to be assigned there.
When the same person was asked by a guard why they were putting on boxers, they said, “Because I’m trans.” The guard said, “Why are you in the females’ dorm if you’re a trans?” and said they would not be permitted to wear boxers.
Trans women reported being placed in men’s dorms, or being given the choice between a men’s dorm and solitary confinement.
When a trans woman in solitary confinement experienced a skin rash, she took off her shirt to stop the burning. She asked the guards to let her take a shower, and they walked her to a shower block in another part of the facility with her shirt still off.
A guard made fun of three transgender women after confiscating all their personal hygiene products like toothbrushes and toothpaste and replacing them with menstrual pads and tampons. She told them something like, “If you were real women, you would need these things.”
The same guard told one of the women to “walk like a man” and threw away a pride flag from her room.

ICE is inflicting more trauma and harm on people who came to the United States fleeing persecution and torture based on their gender identities and expression. ICE has proven that they are not capable of safely detaining trans and nonbinary people. Please join our call for them to stop doing it.