Dozens of House Democrats are calling for the release of all transgender detainees from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, citing a number of horrific deaths and the agency’s ongoing failure to meet congressional standards ensuring the safety and well-being of this vulnerable group. “Each day that ICE continues to detain transgender people,” they write, “is a day that the health and well-being of those individuals is at risk.”
”Transgender migrants and asylum seekers are particularly vulnerable to sexual harassment, solitary confinement, physical assault, and medical neglect,” over 40 House Democrats, led by LGBT Equality Caucus vice chair Mike Quigley, tell acting Homeland Security Sec. Chad Wolf in their letter. "These inhumane conditions and systematic abuses are evidenced in countless reports and accounts by formally detained people”—and in the stories of those who have lost their lives while under ICE’s watch.
“Last year at Cibola County Correctional Center, Roxsana Hernandez Rodriguez, a transgender woman-seeking asylum in the U.S., died of HIV-related complications,” legislators continue. “A little over a year after Roxsana’s death, Johana Medina León, another asylum seeking transgender woman, died in a hospital in El Paso, Texas, shortly after being released from ICE custody. Johana requested medical attention while in custody, but was denied medical care by ICE, until her condition worsened.” In Roxsana’s case, ICE officials were clearly instructed to preserve surveillance footage that could have shown her condition in her final days of life. They deleted it.
Legislators say ICE is failing to show it can properly care for transgender people: “The recently enacted FY2020 Appropriations package includes instructions for ICE to only detain transgender individuals in facilities specifically contracted for their care. Currently, no ICE facilities meet these standards,” they say in a statement. “If ICE and the Trump administration cannot care for the individuals in their facilities with dignity, respect, and humanitarian care, they must release these individuals to avoid subjecting them to continued harm,” said House assistant Speaker and signatory, Ben Ray Luján.
The legislators echoed a similar call from over a dozen groups last year that also urged the release of all transgender detainees, as well as detained people living with HIV, not just from ICE, but also from Border Patrol custody, where conditions are similarly unsuitable. “In light of the substantial evidence of ICE's inability to safely house and adequately care for LGBTQ, PLWHIV individuals in its custody, we call for ICE to exercise its parole authority and release all LGBTQ, PLWHIV individuals on their own recognizance,” the groups said in their complaint.
“As Chair of the Hispanic Caucus, I’m working to hold ICE accountable and have already requested that the Homeland Security Inspector General launch an investigation into ICE for Roxsana’s death,” signatory Rep. Joaquin Castro said. “Transgender immigrants cannot be safely detained by ICE under current standards—not one more life should be lost due to this agency’s negligence.”