“No Human Being
Should Be Held There”
The Mistreatment of LGBTQ and HIV-Positive People
in U.S. Federal Immigration Jails
JUNE 2024

No Human Being Should Be Held There
THE MISTREATMENT OF LGBTQ AND HIV POSITIVE
PEOPLE IN U.S. FEDERAL IMMIGRATION JAILS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Asylum in the United States is a lifesaving necessity for
LGBTQ and HIV-positive people. For decades, many have
fled to the United States to seek refuge from persecution
and torture. However, the United States subjects
hundreds of thousands of people yearly, including
LGBTQ and HIV-positive people, to its massive network
of jails and prisons. These jails, run by U.S. Customs and
Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE), are infamous for their inhumane and
abusive conditions. For LGBTQ and HIV-positive people,
these conditions routinely include high rates of physical
and sexual violence, improper and prolonged solitary
confinement, and inadequate medical care among other
forms of systemic abuse and neglect.
For this report, Immigration Equality, the National
Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), and Human Rights First
(HRF) surveyed 41 LGBTQ and HIV-positive immigrants
who were detained by CBP and ICE. This survey revealed:
• Approximately one third of survey participants (18
out of 41) reported sexual abuse, physical assaults or
sexual harassment in immigration detention due to
their LGBTQ identity;
• Nearly all of the participants (35 out of 41), reported
being targets of homophobic, transphobic,
xenophobic, racist, or other verbal and nonverbal
abuse in ICE and CBP jails that included threats of
violence and assault;
• A majority of participants (28 out of 41) reported
receiving inadequate medical care or asking for
medical care and not receiving it while in ICE or CBP
detention.
• Nearly half of participants (20 out of 41) interviewed
reported new or increased mental health symptoms
while in detention, including hives, panic attacks,
mental health crises, flashbacks, and self-harm;

• Roughly half of participants (20 of 41) were subject
to solitary confinement;
• Nearly half of participants (18 of 41) reported having
their sexual orientation, gender identity, HIV status
or other confidential medical information disclosed
in custody without their consent;
• More than a quarter of survey participants (12 out
of 41) reported that ICE or CBP separated them
from their loved ones, whether a partner, spouse, or
sibling;
• Survey participants routinely struggled to access
their attorneys or find one, while in ICE or CBP
detention;
• The majority of survey participants living with HIV (13
out of 17 participants) reported medical neglect or
denial of medical HIV treatment.

“No human being should be held there.”
—
Zoe,
a transgender asylum seeker and survey
participant reflecting on her time
in CBP and ICE custody.

The executive branch and Congress can take steps
to end this unnecessary suffering and protect
the rights of LGBTQ/H individuals. These include
steps to apply parole authority, issue guidance on
vulnerable populations, support legislative action
and phase out immigration detention. Read our full
report here.

NO HUMAN B EING SHOULD B E HELD THERE | 2

Acknowledgements
Revisiting memories of detention is often traumatic and painful. Survey participants showed
remarkable patience and generosity in making time for this survey and describing their
experiences, including abuse and other institutional harm they suffered. The authors wish to
thank all 41 survey participants for their leadership, courage, and resilience. We also thank
all referring organizations that connected the authors to these survey participants. Special
thanks to Arielle Wisbaum for her invaluable contribution to this report.

The authors also thank:
Ashley Moy-Wooten
Ruby Ritchin
Sarah Rosen
for their invaluable
help interviewing
survey participants.

Baker Botts L.L.P.
for contributing invaluable
research to the report.

Dr. Elizabeth Kvach
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
The Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project (the Florence Project)
Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center (Las Americas)
New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI)
The Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN)
for their participation in organizational interviews on the conditions LGBTQ and HIV-positive
people face.

Translates to “For LGBT immigrants,
deportation can be a death sentence.
It’s time for a new trajectory.”

NO HUMAN B EING SHOULD B E HELD THERE | 3

About the Authors
This report was researched and drafted by Liza Doubossarskaia and Bridget Crawford of Immigration Equality,
Azadeh Erfani and Heidi Altman of the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), and Becky Gendelman, Christina
Asencio, and Robyn Barnard of Human Rights First (HRF). It was edited by Samantha Ruvalcaba of NIJC and Kristen
Thompson of Immigration Equality.

ABOUT IMMIGR ATION EQUALITY:
For 30 years, Immigration Equality has promoted justice and equality for LGBTQ and HIV-positive
immigrants and families through direct legal services, policy advocacy, and impact litigation.
Each year, Immigration Equality’s in-house attorneys and nationwide network of pro bono
partners directly represent more than 700 refugees and asylum seekers who are LGBTQ or
living with HIV, and provide free legal help to thousands more. Since 2009, Immigration Equality
has maintained a dedicated immigration detention advocacy program that supports a detention
hotline, provides direct representation to detained people, and fights for systemic reform.
ABOUT NIJC:
NIJC is dedicated to ensuring human rights protections and access to justice for immigrants,
refugees, and asylum seekers. Headquartered in Chicago, NIJC provides legal services to
more than 10,000 individuals each year, including many asylum seekers, torture survivors, and
unaccompanied children who have entered the United States by crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
NIJC’s legal services team includes the LGBTQ Immigrant Rights Initiative (LGBTQ Project), which
provides legal services through in-house and pro bono representation to detained and nondetained LGB/Queer/Trans people as well as those living with HIV/AIDS. The LGBTQ Project’s
work largely focuses on litigating protection-based claims across the country, advocating for
detention release, and defending detained transgender people from deportation. Many of these
individuals have overcome unimaginable persecution and torture in their home countries and
journeyed to the United States in hopes of finding a better future. Since its founding more than
three decades ago, NIJC uniquely blends individual client advocacy with broad-based systemic
change, including policy reform, impact litigation, and public education.
ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS FIRST:
Human Rights First works to create a just world in which every person’s intrinsic human rights
are respected and protected, to build societies that value and invest in all their people. To reach
that goal demands assisting victims of injustice, bringing perpetrators of abuse to justice, and
building institutions that ensure universal rights. The organization has, since its earliest days,
worked with major law firms to provide pro bono legal representation to refugees seeking asylum
in the United States, and advocated for U.S. asylum, migration and refugee policies that uphold
international refugee and human rights law. Many of our pro bono asylum clients fled persecution
due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. Human Rights First is a nonprofit, nonpartisan
international human rights organization based in Los Angeles, New York, and Washington D.C.

For questions about this report, please contact:
ldoubossarskaia@immigrationequality.org; ngupta@immigrantjustice.org;
and press@humanrightsfirst.org.

NO HUMAN B EING SHOULD B E HELD THERE | 4

Table of Contents
I. Introduction					

7

II. Understanding the Context			

9

III. Survey Methodology
and Participant Demographics		

15

IV. 41 LGBTQ/H survey participants
describe widespread abuse in ICE
and CBP jails					

17

V. Closing recommendations			

32

VI. Appendices

34

NO HUMAN B EING SHOULD B E HELD THERE | 5

Glossary
CBP – Customs and Border Protection is an entity within the
U.S. Department of Homeland Security. CBP is tasked with
controlling the United States borders, including inspecting
visas and other travel documents, short-term detention, and
some elements of the deportation process. CBP agents are
typically the first U.S. immigration officials that asylum seekers
and other migrants encounter when they arrive at the United
States border.
CFI – A Credible Fear Interview is a screening interview
conducted by an asylum officer to determine whether there
is a significant possibility that the individual can win their
asylum claim. People who request asylum at the United States
border typically must undergo a CFI and receive a positive
determination to be able to apply for asylum. If a person does
not pass their CFI, they will most likely be deported.
DHS – The Department of Homeland Security is a federal
agency responsible for immigration enforcement, customs
and border management, and immigration services such as
naturalization. The agency includes many component subagencies with wide-ranging missions that are sometimes
entirely unrelated to immigration such as the Secret Service,
FEMA, and the Coast Guard. CBP, ICE, and USCIS are part of
DHS.
Gender identity – A person’s internal, deeply held sense of
being a man, woman, non-binary person, or somewhere else
on the gender spectrum. Gender identity does not necessarily
correspond to a person’s sex assigned at birth, and people
can become aware of their gender identity at various stages
throughout their life.
ICE – Immigration and Customs Enforcement operates in the
interior of the United States. It is responsible for most aspects
of the deportation process. ICE is the primary agency that
detains asylum seekers and other migrants for extended
periods of time during their immigration proceedings. ICE also
has the discretionary authority to release people from custody
at any time.
Jail staff – ICE and CBP employees, contractors, and subcontracted personnel who work for private prison companies or
jails, including medical and other personnel, working at ICE and
CBP detention facilities.
LGBTQ/H – Umbrella acronym to refer to people with diverse
sexual or gender identities, including, lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, intersex, queer, non-binary, gender nonconforming people, as well as people who are living with HIV.
The authors generally use the term “people living with HIV”
where possible. However, for brevity, we sometimes use the
alternative terminology “HIV positive.” The authors use the
terms “transgender” and “trans” interchangeably.

Medical neglect – The provision of insufficient, inadequate,
substandard, or delayed health care, or a failure to provide care
altogether.
Obstruction of access to counsel – Systemic and structural
barriers that prevent detained individuals from looking for
attorneys, communicating with attorneys, and/or meaningfully
engaging with their attorneys to prepare their immigration
case. This includes blocking physical access to facilities by
attorneys, requiring detained people to pay for telephone
calls, limiting time when people can access the phone, limiting
library access, failing to provide private spaces to communicate
with counsel, and hostility by staff, among other obstacles.
Physical abuse – Intentional bodily contact that is non-sexual
in nature and is meant to physically harm another person.
Sexual abuse – Unwanted contact, including through clothing,
penetration, or indecent exposure by the perpetrator against
the victim, with the intent to humiliate, harass, degrade, arouse
or gratify the sexual desire of any person. Sexual abuse may
include verbal harassment of the detained person that is sexual
in nature.
Sexual assault – Sexual assault is an unwanted sexual behavior
or contact to which the victim has not consented. Examples of
sexual assault can include, but are not limited to, penetration
of the victim’s body or forcing the victim to penetrate the
perpetrator’s body, attempted rape, or unwanted sexual
touching.
Sexual orientation – A person’s emotional, physical and/or
sexual attraction to others, often based on the gender(s) to
whom they are attracted.
Solitary confinement – The United Nations defines solitary
confinement as “confinement of prisoners for 22 hours or
more a day without meaningful human contact.” 1 ICE refers
to solitary confinement as “segregation.” ICE further divides
the types of solitary confinement it uses into “disciplinary”
(punitive) and “administrative” (non-punitive) segregation.
CBP refers to solitary confinement housing as being placed
in a “single-occupancy hold room.”2 In the report, the authors
refer to all types of segregation used by ICE and CBP as solitary
confinement.
Verbal abuse – Homophobic, transphobic, racist, and
xenophobic slurs and other comments intended to humiliate,
disparage, maliciously single out, or cause emotional harm to
another person.

LGBTQ harassment – Unwelcome speech or conduct that is
based on a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or HIV
status.

NO HUMAN B EING SHOULD B E HELD THERE | 6

I. Introduction
For decades, LGBTQ people and people living with HIV have fled to the United
States to seek refuge from persecution and torture. The U.S. government has
granted many of those individuals permanent safe haven. However, since the
1980s, the United States has built a massive network of jails and prisons used
to detain immigrants.3 While pursuing their often strong claims for humanitarian
protection, LGBTQ and HIV-positive immigrants are among hundreds of thousands
jailed yearly by U.S. immigration authorities.

Throughout this

As we detail in Section II, the United States’ current legal framework makes
detention a common response to people arriving at the Southwest border
seeking safety.4 LGBTQ people and people living with HIV who seek refuge in
the United States are subject to a dehumanizing detention system of holding
facilities, jails, and prisons run by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
For over a decade, reporting has shown that LGBTQ and HIV-positive people are
particularly vulnerable to abuse in immigration detention, experiencing high rates
of physical and sexual violence, improper and prolonged solitary confinement,
and inadequate medical care among other forms of systemic abuse and neglect.5

sexual or gender

report, we use
“LGBTQ” as an
umbrella term to be
read as inclusive of
people with diverse
identities, including,
lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, intersex,
queer, non-binary,
and gender nonconforming people.
We use LGBTQ/H to
refer to LGBTQ people
together with people
who are living with
HIV. See the Glossary
for additional terms
used throughout.

NO HUMAN B EING SHOULD B E HELD THERE | 7

I . INTRODUCTION

For this report, Immigration Equality, the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC),
and Human Rights First (HRF) surveyed 41 LGBTQ and HIV-positive immigrants
who were formerly detained or who, at the time of the survey, were detained
by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) (Section III). As detailed in our findings (Section IV):
•

Approximately one-third of survey participants (18 out of 41) reported sexual
abuse, physical assaults or sexual harassment in immigration detention due to
their LGBTQ identity;

•

Nearly all of the participants (35 out of 41) reported being targets of
homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, racist, or other verbal and nonverbal
abuse in ICE and CBP jails that sometimes included threats of violence and
assault;

•

A majority of participants (28 out of 41) reported receiving inadequate
medical care or asking for medical care and not receiving it while in ICE or
CBP detention;

•

Nearly half of participants (20 out of 41) interviewed reported new or increased
mental health symptoms while in detention, including hives, panic attacks,
mental health crises, flashbacks, and self-harm;

•

Roughly half of participants (20 of 41) were subject to solitary confinement;

•

Nearly half of participants (18 of 41) reported having their sexual orientation,
gender identity, HIV status or other confidential medical information disclosed
in custody without their consent;

•

More than a quarter of survey participants (12 out of 41) reported that ICE
or CBP separated them from their loved ones, whether a partner, spouse, or
sibling;

•

Survey participants routinely struggled to access their attorneys or find one,
while in ICE or CBP detention;

•

The majority of survey participants living with HIV (13 out of 17 participants)
reported medical neglect or denial of medical HIV treatment.

In the words of Saïd, a survey participant and a gay man who lived in the United
States since he was a child:6 “I will never forget what I experienced in ICE
custody and how I was treated. I now know that I’m a ‘them,’ I’m not an
American. It was drilled into me.”
Jailing immigrants is not a requirement or necessity; it is the U.S. government’s
choice. In Section V, we detail recommendations the executive branch and
Congress can take to end this unnecessary suffering and protect the rights
of LGBTQ/H individuals. These include steps to apply parole authority, issue
guidance on vulnerable populations, support legislative action and phase out
immigration detention.

NO HUMAN B EING SHOULD B E HELD THERE | 8

II. Understanding the
Context

OF U.S. IMMIGRATION DETENTION AND
HOW IT IMPACTS LGBTQ /H PEOPLE

The U.S. immigration detention system is relatively new and anomalous in relation
to the rest of U.S. history and most of the world. Two sub-agencies of DHS — CBP
and ICE — have grown this system quickly since the 1980s, with scant oversight
and abhorrent conditions. This growth has been driven by private prison lobbying8
and a misguided commitment by administrations of both parties to the theory
that punitive border policies will deter people from attempting to migrate to the
United States—overlooking evidence that even the worst mistreatment, such as
family separation or family detention, is ineffective in stopping migration.9 This
deterrence model has not stopped LGBTQ/H people from seeking safety in the
United States, forcing them to endure devastating harm in jail while they await
humanitarian relief.
A. WHY LGBTQ/H PEOPLE SEEK ASYLUM
Asylum in the United States is a lifesaving necessity for LGBTQ/H people. Samesex activity between consenting adults is subject to criminal punishment in
approximately 67 countries10 and it is fundamentally unsafe to be LGBTQ in many
more.11 Twelve countries allow the death penalty for consensual same-sex sexual
activity.12 Fourteen countries target gender identity through “cross-dressing” or
“impersonation” laws.13

“I am a human being.
I’m just asking for an
opportunity to stay in
the United States and
to be free and
be safe.”
—
Maura Martinez,
trans woman detained by
ICE for over two years.7

NO HUMAN B EING SHOULD B E HELD THERE | 9

II . UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT

These laws are not historical artifacts: for example, in 2023, Uganda adopted new
penal code provisions that criminalize same-sex sexual acts, which are punishable
by death in certain circumstances.14 Similarly inhumane and draconian laws are
now under consideration in Ghana and Kenya.15 In 2023, Russia’s Supreme
Court declared that the LGBTQ “movement” is an extremist organization, giving
Russian authorities the greenlight to persecute anyone they consider part of the
movement.16 Even in countries where anti-LGBTQ laws are not regularly enforced,
having such laws on the books terrorizes the LGBTQ community and leads to
serious human rights abuses.
In addition to criminalization, LGBTQ people are targets of high levels of violence
throughout the world, including sexual assault, forced conversion therapy and
“corrective” rape, physical abuse, kidnapping, torture, and murder.17 This violence
is perpetrated by private actors, such as family and community members, as well
as by police and other government actors.18 Impunity for LGBTQ-hate crimes and
under-reporting is a chronic problem, as authorities routinely perpetrate the
persecution. LGBTQ individuals are often terrified that going to the police will
result in retaliation in the form of rape, beatings, or murder.19
Extreme anti-LGBTQ bias and stigmatization in many countries also prevents
queer and transgender people from meaningfully participating in everyday life
such as obtaining education, employment, housing and healthcare. LGBTQ people
are often stripped of family or parental rights, and denied access to politics or
power.20 Because there are so many places in the world where LGBTQ/H people
live in mortal danger, they flee to the United States to escape persecution and
torture.
For LGBTQ/H people who have fled their homes to find safety, arrival at the
U.S. border marks the beginning of another series of challenging processes and
experiences likely to exacerbate past trauma. U.S. federal law requires that every
person arriving at the border be able to access the asylum system — regardless of
whether they present themselves at a port of entry or between ports of entry. In
other words, seeking asylum at the border is legal. It is a right guaranteed by U.S.
law that helps to save the lives of LGBTQ/H people. 21 In recent years, however, the
U.S. government has implemented measures to block or restrict access to asylum
at the U.S.-Mexico border.22 For example, on May 11, 2023, the Biden administration
initiated a new bar on asylum through its Circumvention of Lawful Pathways rule
(“asylum ban”) that denies asylum, with highly limited exceptions, to non-Mexican
people who enter the United States at or between U.S.-Mexico border ports
of entry without appointments.23 Since its implementation, the asylum ban and
related practices have harmed LGBTQ/H people and other asylum seekers.24
These deterrence and punitive policies render this right elusive for some and
contingent on suffering for others. Key to these policies is the U.S. insistence on
detaining immigrants and asylum seekers, a relatively recent development rooted
in racial and anti-LGBTQ/H bias.

NO HUMAN B EING SHOULD B E HELD THERE | 10

II . UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT

B. WHY DOES THE UNITED STATES DETAIN
IMMIGRANTS?
Most of the world,25 including the United Nations,
has recognized that jailing people based on their
immigration status should never be the norm in
response to people fleeing harm.26 The United
States did, too, in 1954, when it shifted away from
detention and closed its last immigrant prison — a
move that then-Attorney General Herbert Brownell,
Jr., described as a “step forward toward humane
administration of the immigration laws.”27
The presumption of liberty for immigrants remained
until the 1980s. The United States’ systematic
use of immigration detention was first spurred
by anti-Black racism and discrimination against
people living with HIV,28 with the United States
disparately jailing Haitian asylum seekers fleeing the
brutal Duvalier dictatorship.29 Although the United
States passed landmark legislation protecting the
right to refuge in 1980, it refused to protect tens
of thousands of Haitian refugees fleeing political
persecution.30 Instead, the United States proceeded
to build sprawling detention sites — first offshore, in
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and then domestically.

The systemic invisibility of queer and trans
people in ICE custody
ICE’s published detention statistics report that
there are 39 transgender people in ICE custody
as of May 2024, but this is likely an undercount
because of failures of ICE’s reporting mechanisms,
and because transgender people do not always
self-identify themselves to ICE, often due to safety
concerns.35 The authors regularly represent
transgender people who are not reflected in ICE
statistics. ICE does not publicly report statistics
on the number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer
people detained. One of the survey participants,
a trans woman named Zora, conveyed her
experience, noting,“They always forget about the
trans women.”
For an overview of ICE and CBP standards of
care for people in immigration detention, see
Appendix A.
Memorial to three people detained by ICE
who died from complications related to
HIV. Photo credit: Michael Lavers

Over the course of the 1990s, the same policies
and political rhetoric that resulted in the mass
incarceration of Black and Brown communities
in U.S. jails and prisons fueled the expansion
of immigrant detention into the system we see
today.31 In 2024, Congress appropriated $3.4 billion
for ICE’s current detention budget, sufficient to jail
approximately 41,500 people on any given day.32 This
marked a significant increase from the previous year,
which had already seen more than 270,000 people
detained.33 These numbers are particularly alarming
given promises made by President Biden on the
campaign trail to end the use of for-profit immigration
detention entirely.34

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II . UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT

C. WHAT CONDITIONS DO DETAINED PEOPLE
FACE UPON ARRIVING IN THE UNITED
STATES?
Responsibility for preliminary processing of people
arriving at the border falls to CBP. CBP’s own standards
limit the agency’s detention to “the least amount of time
required for their processing” and generally not longer
than 72 hours, but these standards are not codified in
law and are regularly flouted by the agency.36 As recently
as this past summer, CBP was reported to be regularly
holding people for periods of 10 days or longer.37 In March
2024, the DHS Office of Inspector General corroborated
this report of prolonged detention as well as conditions
of overcrowding upon visiting CBP facilities in the Rio
Grande Sector.38
Conditions in CBP custody are infamously39 abusive,40 dehumanizing,41 and sometimes life-threatening,42 including recent reports43 that migrants have
been held for a period of hours up to days in open air
detention sites in remote desert areas near the border wall as well as between two parallel border walls,
largely without access to food, water, sanitation, shelter, and medical services beyond aid provided by volunteers. Opacity is a hallmark of CBP detention; neither
journalists44 nor lawyers are permitted access to CBP
facilities.45 There is no online database or other equivalent method to determine whether or where a person
is being held in CBP custody. The United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
transmitted general allegations to the United States
based on grave concerns raised by civil society organizations that custody conditions in CBP could amount to
short-term enforced disappearances of migrants and
asylum seekers under international law.46

Like CBP, the conditions in ICE detention are
dangerous and punishing, as documented by watchdog
agencies, the press, and civil society for decades.
Recently revealed inspection reports written by
DHS’s own experts are among the latest examples
of independent findings of “unsafe and filthy”
conditions, racist abuse and harassment of people
in ICE detention, negligent medical and mental
health care, and “barbaric” punishments leveled,
often, against those with mental health disorders.47
More than 90% of those detained by ICE are in facilities
owned or operated by private prison companies.48
DHS has the discretion to release individuals out of CBP
or ICE custody while they pursue their case before the
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) or
the immigration court. Alternatively, DHS can use its
discretion to place individuals in a summary removal
process called “expedited removal,” which allows DHS
officers to order certain individuals deported without
further review and largely occurs while individuals
are in custody.49 However, Congress enacted specific
protections — the credible fear screening — within the
law for asylum seekers. Individuals subject to expedited
removal who express an intent to seek asylum or fear of
return to their country of nationality must be referred for
a preliminary fear screening (a Credible Fear Interview
or “CFI”) by a USCIS asylum officer. During CFIs, people
are forced to recount the trauma they fled within days
or weeks of arriving in the United States, while enduring
the punitive and often abusive50 conditions of ICE or
CBP51 custody and the vast majority of individuals have
not had the opportunity to consult with or retain counsel
to represent them. These crucial screenings typically
are conducted over a telephone from the ICE detention
center or CBP holding cell, adding to the difficulty for the
person to recount highly sensitive and often traumatic
accounts. Many LGBTQ individuals are afraid to
reveal their sexual orientation or gender identity
to a USCIS asylum officer in such a short period of
time and under such stressful conditions. Because
this information is often central to the successful
presentation of an asylum claim, such rushed time
frames often result in wrongful deportations back
to harm.

NO HUMAN B EING SHOULD B E HELD THERE | 12

II . UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT

Once a person passes a CFI, their case will most likely
be transferred to an immigration court for asylum
proceedings. Some people’s asylum proceedings
move extremely quickly, raising significant due process
concerns and risk of wrongful deportation back to harm
(known as refoulement).52 Other cases move slowly,
forcing people to remain in detention for months or
years while their cases are completed. Individuals spend
an average of 54 days in ICE custody, but some people
are detained far longer.53 More than 1,800 people in
ICE custody today have been there for longer than six
months.54
D. WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE SPECIFIC
HARMS LGBTQ/H PEOPLE FACE IN U.S.
IMMIGRATION JAILS?
Years of reports and investigations have revealed that
LGBTQ/H people endure compounded and complex
harms in immigration detention.
SEXUAL ABUSE
In 2018, the Center for American Progress (CAP)
analyzed data released by the federal government and
found that although LGBTQ people were only 0.14%
of the population detained by ICE, they accounted for
12% of the victims of sexual abuse.55 In other words,
LGBTQ people in immigration detention were 97 times
more likely to experience sexual victimization than
non-LGBTQ people. Recent reporting and complaints
by LGBTQ advocates to DHS demonstrate that sexual
harassment and violence against LGBTQ individuals is
ongoing.56 For instance, in April 2024, service providers
filed a complaint on behalf of transgender and
nonbinary people jailed in ICE custody. In the complaint,
a transgender woman, who was detained with the
male population, reported that a man repeatedly
masturbated in front of her. Others had to report the
same behavior before the jail staff took action.57
SOLITARY CONFINEMENT
Despite DHS guidance mandating that solitary
confinement only be used as a last resort when no other
viable housing options exist, ICE and its contractors
regularly resort to the use of solitary confinement
when unable to protect LGBTQ individuals from

abuse.58 In a 2019 report, the International Consortium
of Investigative Journalists found that ICE’s solitary
confinement practices frequently targeted LGBTQ
people and other vulnerable populations sometimes as
a so-called protective mechanism, leading to prolonged
solitary confinement.59 In one example, a transgender
woman attempted suicide after a month in solitary
confinement. She was sent to the hospital after the
attempt, but upon her return was placed back into
solitary where she remained for most of the next
year.60 A recent 2024 report from Physicians for Human
Rights confirms the continued improper, overuse of
solitary confinement against LGBTQ individuals and
others.61

“You cannot be making money off of
people wanting to seek a better life.”
—
Andrea Loya,
executive director of Casa de Paz68
YEARS OF FAILURE TO PREVENT ICE JAIL STAFF’S
ABUSE OF TRANSGENDER PEOPLE
Despite DHS being put on notice of these ongoing issues,
policies designed to address widespread and systemic
abuses against LGBTQ individuals in ICE custody have
failed. For instance, ICE opened transgender housing
units referred to as “pods” at facilities in Santa Ana,
California and Cibola, New Mexico.62 While ICE justified
this isolation as “protecting” trans people in their
custody, both pods were shut down after reports of
rampant abuse including humiliating and abusive strip
searches by jail staff, prolonged and punitive solitary
confinement, medical neglect, and other mistreatment.63
Roxsana Hernandez Rodriguez, a transgender
woman seeking asylum in the U.S., died of HIV related
complications while in ICE custody at Cibola.64 When
the Cibola trans pod closed in January 2020, about half
of the pod was transferred to a new trans pod at the
Denver Contract Detention Facility in Aurora, Colorado.
However, serious abuses have also been reported at
that facility, where three detained people have died
since 2012.65

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II . UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT

In 2015, ICE issued a “Transgender Care
Memorandum” providing standards of care for
detained transgender people to supplement existing
detention standards. The Memorandum provides
limited protections including guidelines for housing
and bathroom facilities, gender identity screening,
limitations on the use of segregation, and provision
of gender affirming health care.66 However, the
Memorandum’s protections are vague, ambiguous, and
lack an independent oversight mechanism to ensure
their implementation. Further, many of the protections
outlined in the Memorandum are only mandatory for
a facility if it has incorporated the provisions into its
contract. As of 2020, Reuters reported that no facility
had modified its contract to adopt the 2015 guidance
although some facilities had adopted the guidance
“informally.”67 As of the date of this report, the authors
do not know exactly which facilities have incorporated
the Memorandum into their contracts because ICE does
not post its contracts publicly in a consistent manner.
Even when it is incorporated in ICE facilities, the
Memorandum provides insufficient protections
and preserves a carceral and inhumane approach
— focusing on the isolation of transgender people,
which prolongs detention, exacerbates trauma,
and punishes people on the basis of their gender
identity. For more information on the Memorandum,
see Appendix A.
MEDICAL NEGLECT
Medical neglect among detained LGBTQ/H people
is also widely documented.72 In a 2019 DHS Office
of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) complaint,
advocacy organizations detailed medical neglect and
abuse of transgender and HIV-positive immigrants in
various detention facilities throughout the country.73
In March 2020, Immigration Equality filed a CRCL
complaint highlighting substandard HIV care and ICE’s
refusal to release a number of asylum seekers living
with HIV at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.74
Authors routinely receive reports of medical neglect
and inadequate care from detained clients and
have reported these concerns through individualized
complaints to ICE, CRCL, the DHS Office of Inspector
General (OIG), and the DHS Office of the Immigration

Detention Ombudsman (OIDO). The risk posed to
transgender people in immigration detention has also
prompted members of Congress to demand that ICE
release transgender immigrants in its custody.75
In addition to abuse in ICE facilities, advocates also
receive reports regarding rampant mistreatment and
medical neglect in CBP custody. However, given that
detained people are in CBP facilities for shorter periods
and often are not certain of the details of confinement,
such as the location of the CBP facility in which they
were held, reporting on such abuses has been limited.

Vicky, represented by NIJC, is a transgender

woman seeking safety in the U.S. after fleeing
violence in Honduras.
Until recently, Vicky was held in ICE detention
without a hearing for more than two years,
highlighting the mistreatment of transgender
individuals and negligent care in private detention
facilities. Vicky was detained in Pine Prairie,69 an ICE
facility in Louisiana that purportedly incorporated
the Transgender Care Memorandum, before being
transferred to the Denver Contract Detention
Facility (Aurora), operated by a private prison
company, GEO Group. Vicky filed a civil rights
complaint detailing the culture of transphobia,
harassment, and medical negligence she endured
while detained at Pine Prairie, and one related to
the mistreatment of transgender detained people in
Aurora’s trans pod.70
Vicky’s mistreatment illustrates that ICE routinely
fails to follow its own memorandum, even when
incorporated, and continues to subject trans women
to horrific conditions.71

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III. Survey Methodology
and Participant
		 Demographics
Between July 2023 and December 2023, the authors
interviewed 41 detained or formerly detained LGBTQ/H
individuals for this survey. These 41 individuals
(collectively referred to as “survey participants”
or “participants” throughout) included three who
were detained at the time of interview and 38
who had previously been detained by ICE and/or
CBP. Concurrently, the authors interviewed seven
organizations who regularly provide services to or
advocate on behalf of LGBTQ/H people in CBP or ICE
detention.
A. METHODOLOGY
Individual participants were recruited through
outreach to organizations that provide legal and social
services to LGBTQ/H immigrants. The 41 participants
were interviewed by a staff member of one of the
organizations that authored this report who asked
questions guided by a survey tool.

The goal of the interviews
was to collect
quantitative
and
qualitative
information
on
experiences of confinement for LGBTQ/H individuals.
All interviews were conducted either in person, by
video call, or standard telephone call in languages
that the participants were fluent in. Interviews lasted
approximately one to three hours. Participation was
voluntary, and all participants provided informed
consent to take part in the survey. Interviews were
based on a questionnaire (see Appendix B).76
In addition, the authors conducted eight interviews
with representatives from legal and social services nonprofit organizations that serve or advocate on behalf
of LGBTQ/H immigrants, including: the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico, the Florence
Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project (the Florence
Project), Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center
(Las Americas), American Friends Service Committee

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III . SURVEY METHODOLOGY AND PARTICIPANT DEMOGR APHICS

(AFSC), New York Lawyers for the Public Interest
(NYLPI), and Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy
Network (RMIAN). These interviews were conducted
to gather additional context and information on
conditions of confinement from the perspective of legal
representatives and social service providers working
with LGBTQ/H immigrants. These interviews were
conducted via video conference by authors during the
same time frame as the individual participant interviews.

The interviews covered participant experiences in both
ICE and CBP custody as further specified below:
•

Twenty-nine participants were detained by both
ICE and CBP; seven participants were detained
exclusively by ICE; and five were detained
exclusively by CBP.

•

Eighteen participants were detained during 20222023; twenty-one during 2018-2021; one participant
was detained in 2014; and one was detained in
2009-2010.

•

One participant was detained for two years; sixteen
were detained for between six months and two
years; fifteen were detained between one and six
months; three were detained between two weeks
and one month; and six were detained for less than
two weeks.

•

Participants detained by CBP were jailed in facilities
in Arizona, California, and Texas.

•

Eight participants were not certain where they
were jailed.

•

Participants were jailed in ICE prisons located in
Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Guam,
Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, New
Mexico, Texas, and Virginia, including the following
facilities: Adams County Correctional Center,
Adelanto ICE Processing Center, Baker County
Facility, Central Arizona Florence Correctional
Center, Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center,
Denver Contract Detention Facility, Eloy Detention
Center, El Paso Service Processing Center,
Florence Correctional Center, Folkston ICE
Processing Center, Imperial Regional Detention
Facility, Jackson Parish Correctional Center, Karnes
County Immigration Processing Center, La Palma
Correctional Center, Otay Mesa Detention Center,
Richwood Correctional Center, San Luis Regional
Detention Center, South Louisiana ICE Processing
Center, South Texas ICE Processing Center, Stewart
Detention Center, Tallahatchie County Correctional
Facility, Val Verde Correctional Facility, and Winn
Correctional Center.77

B. DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION ABOUT
SURVEY PARTICIPANTS
All survey participants identified as LGBTQ. All survey
participants were 18 years of age or older. Thirteen are
transgender women, one is a transgender man, two
identified as gender non-conforming, and one identified
as non-binary. With respect to sexual orientation, six
are bisexual, three are lesbians, 17 are gay and one
is pansexual. One participant identified as LGBTQ,
but did not further specify their identity. Seventeen
participants are living with HIV. Twenty-five participants
were from Latin and Central America, seven were from
Caribbean countries, five were from Eastern Europe,
one from West Asia, and one from an African country.
Two other participants identified as Indigenous. The
vast majority of survey participants were Black,
Brown or Indigenous, leading to intersecting forms
of harm between race, Indigeneity, and LGBTQ/H
status.
All participants were immigrants pursuing humanitarian
relief in the form of asylum, withholding of removal,
or relief pursuant to the Convention against Torture
(although they may have also been pursuing other relief
as well). At the time of their interview, 13 participants
had been granted immigration relief, one had been
deported, and 27 had cases still pending. After the
interviews, authors learned that two other participants
were deported and another was granted relief.

Map of ICE prisons
where some survey
participants were jailed.

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IV. 41 LGBTQ/H survey
participants describe
widespread abuse in
ICE and CBP jails.
Below we outline specific findings related to (A) sexual and physical abuse; (B)
homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, and racist harassment; (C) the denial of
medical care or rampant medical neglect; (D) substandard or nonexistent mental
healthcare and alarming use of solitary confinement; (E) violations of privacy
rights; and (F) obstruction of access to counsel in ICE and CBP jails.
A. APPROXIMATELY ONE-THIRD OF SURVEY PARTICIPANTS
REPORTED EXPERIENCING SEXUAL ABUSE, PHYSICAL ASSAULTS,
AND/OR SEXUAL HARASSMENT DUE TO THEIR LGBTQ IDENTITY IN
IMMIGRATION DETENTION.
As described in Section II above, sexual and physical violence directed at detained
LGBTQ immigrants is an ongoing and persistent issue, with little oversight or
accountability. The security mechanisms ICE has in place are woefully inadequate
at protecting LGBTQ people from harm. As a result, LGBTQ immigrants continue
to experience sexual abuse and physical assault in detention. Moreover, LGBTQ

“It was completely
disgusting. My first
impression of the
democratic country
United States is that
asylum seekers are
treated as second
class.”
—
Nikolai,
gay man and survey
participant reflecting on
his time in CBP custody.

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IV. 41 LGBTQ /H SURVEY PARTICIPANTS DESCRIBE WIDESPREAD ABUSE IN ICE AND CBP JAILS.

immigrants frequently fall victim to physical and sexual
violence in their countries of origin due to their LGBTQ
identities. In ICE custody, some of them have to relive
these traumatic events.
Eighteen out of 41 participants reported being
sexually or physically assaulted or abused,
or witnessing another LGBTQ person being
physically assaulted in ICE custody. Specifically,
eight people reported being sexually assaulted or
abused; another eight reported being physically
assaulted; and two participants witnessed other
LGBTQ detained people being assaulted.78 Another
transgender woman also reported that an officer
sexually harassed her verbally. Some participants
stated that they were scared to report abuses to the
detention staff because they feared being placed in
solitary confinement “for protection.” Others did not
report abuse because they believed that detention staff
would ignore them or retaliate against them.

Photo credit: Alecska
Copyright: [cc] by-nc-nd Alecska @
Followthestory.net

Below are examples of sexual and physical abuse and assault experienced by survey participants:
Karina, a trans woman detained by ICE in Nevada in the male detention unit, was sexually assaulted by a detained
man while in the shower. She states that after the assault, she was taken to a hospital “to see if she was really
raped.” The male immigration security officer who brought her to the hospital remained present during the
medical examination and she was forced to undress in front of him. After being returned to the detention facility,
Karina experienced a mental health crisis and was subsequently placed in solitary confinement.
Leona is a trans woman who was detained in a Florida ICE facility in the male detention unit. She shared a cell
with a man who continually sexually harassed and abused her. She reported the man to immigration officials and
asked to be moved, but her requests were ignored. One night, the man got on top of Leona and attempted to
rape her. She screamed for help, and the people in the neighboring cells made noise, which drew the attention
of officers who eventually stopped the assault. Leona still suffers psychologically from the incident.
David is a gay man who was detained by ICE in Virginia. He was a
target of homophobic verbal harassment from a detained man who
called him names like “faggot” and “pussy boy.” David reported the
man to the facility staff and was transferred to a different housing
unit. However, David’s abuser was later moved to the same unit as
him. The man then physically assaulted David, pulling him off of the
top bunk and severely beating him. David tried to defend himself
and was placed in solitary confinement for approximately 20 days
as a result. His attacker was placed in the opposite cell. ICE refused
to move David away from his assailant, even when there were other
empty cells available. David experienced continued verbal abuse
from his attacker after the assault. He also started suffering from
panic attacks.

“The guards beat us like dogs.
The other detainees also beat me.”
—
Tara,
trans woman and survey participant
recalling her experience in ICE custody.

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IV. 41 LGBTQ /H SURVEY PARTICIPANTS DESCRIBE WIDESPREAD ABUSE IN ICE AND CBP JAILS.

Zora is a transgender woman who was detained in a Georgia ICE facility. The facility also housed individuals
in criminal proceedings. Zora was housed in the area of the facility reserved for maximum security alongside
non-immigration male prisoners, purportedly for her “safety” because it was the only area where she could
be detained in a cell alone. Despite these supposed steps to afford her safety, she faced sexual and racist
harassment and abuse. A man detained in the same unit who was tasked with bringing food to her cell twice
exposed himself to Zora and masturbated in front of her while calling her a slur. As prison officials investigated
the incident, a supervisor called Zora a “wetback.” Eventually, the man who had exposed himself was moved out
of her unit. However, when Zora was being released, she saw the man in the hallway, and he tried to attack her
again.
Benjamin is a gay man who was detained by ICE in New Jersey. Without his consent, detention staff disclosed
Benjamin’s sexual orientation to other detained people and displayed an ID card on the door of his cell indicating
Benjamin is gay. While Benjamin was asleep, a detained man punched him in the face. Benjamin told an officer
about the attack. Instead of helping, the officer accused Benjamin of fighting and threatened to lock him in
solitary confinement. After that, Benjamin was physically assaulted at least five more times in homophobic
attacks. However, he did not report these attacks due to the officer’s threat to place him in solitary confinement.
Zoe, a trans woman detained in Louisiana in the male detention unit, felt unsafe in the ICE facility. After seven to
eight requests for alternative housing, ICE told her that protective custody was her only alternative, which Zoe
understood to mean 22+ hours of isolation per day. Because of the persecution she endured in her country of
origin due to being LGBTQ, Zoe worried that prolonged isolation would be psychologically unbearable for her,
so she remained in the general male population. She experienced several separate incidents of men exposing
themselves, or requesting sexual favors. These multiple incidents of sexual harassment and abuse caused Zoe
to suffer panic attacks.
In each case, ICE put LGBTQ/H participants in custodial settings that inevitably placed them in danger of abuse.
Often, they punished participants for reporting abuse, or placed them in conditions that aggravated their
psychological distress due to repeated exposure to sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and physical assault.
B. NEARLY ALL SURVEY PARTICIPANTS SUFFERED RAMPANT HOMOPHOBIC, TRANSPHOBIC,
XENOPHOBIC, AND RACIST ABUSE AND HARASSMENT.
Homophobic and transphobic verbal abuse is psychologically harmful,79 traumatizing and retraumatizing for LGBTQ
people, especially for those who have faced extreme violence and pervasive abuse in their country of origin because
of their sexual orientation or gender identity.80 Verbal abuse also “function[s] to condone or encourage physical
and sexual abuse, and can leave deep psychological scars on LGBTI detainees.”81 ICE and CBP do not publish data
on the racial identity of the people they detain. However, the vast majority of people subject to detention are
Black, Brown, or Indigenous. As a result, detained LGBTQ/H people suffer abuse targeting multiple aspects
of their identity. Racist and xenophobic insults only compound the harm caused by homophobic and transphobic
harassment.
Nearly all of the participants (35 out of 41) reported being targets of homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic,
racist, or other verbal and nonverbal abuse while in custody that sometimes included threats of violence
and assault.82 29 of 41 participants reported that ICE or CBP staff or contractors perpetrated the abuse, including
by using degrading and dehumanizing language like calling survey participants “fag,” “faggot,” “nasty blacks,”
“scum,” “garbage,” “dirty,” “wetback” or telling survey participants to “fuck off,” “get away... faggot, I don’t want to
catch AIDS,” or that “[you aren’t] wanted in this country.”

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IV. 41 LGBTQ /H SURVEY PARTICIPANTS DESCRIBE WIDESPREAD ABUSE IN
ICE AND CBP JAILS.

Elisa, a trans woman
detained in Arizona,
screamed for help
when men harassed
her in the shower.
When an officer
came, he berated
Elisa rather than
helping her, saying,
“Why are you talking
to so many men
if you don’t want them
to bother you.”

Survey participants reported the following experiences:
Elisa is a trans woman who was detained in Arizona in the male detention unit.
Detained men watched Elisa shower and threatened that they would force her
to perform oral sex in the bathroom. The men also made other sexually explicit
comments to Elisa, like saying, “I want to suck your breasts.” Elisa was scared
that if she reported the harassment she would be put in solitary confinement.
At another Arizona facility, a detained man harassed Elisa while she was
showering. She screamed for help. When an officer came, he berated Elisa
rather than helping her, saying, “Why are you talking to so many men if you don’t
want them to bother you?” There were other instances of harassment that
Elisa reported. The officers responded by placing her in solitary confinement.
Celso is a bisexual man who was detained in Louisiana. During one incident,
a guard saw him talking to another man and called Celso a “fag” in Spanish.
Afterward, Celso became a target of verbal abuse by other detained people,
who referred to him as a “bitch” and said he “look[ed] like a woman” and “ha[d]
a nice ass.” While in CBP custody, a CBP officer referred to Celso and other
detained people as “scum” and “garbage” and said that they “weren’t wanted
in this country.” Other CBP officers witnessed the abuse and did nothing.
Cris is a trans woman who presented to CBP to seek asylum. When Cris asked
a CBP officer to refer to her by her female name, the officer responded, “I don’t
care if you want to be called Princess Diana or Queen Isabel. I see you have a
man’s name in the documents, and I’ll refer to you as a man.”
Humberto is a gay man who was detained in Texas facilities in 2023. Detained
men frequently called him a “fag” and made comments like, “fags don’t present
anything useful to society.” Humberto never reported the harassment to
detention staff because he feared retaliation from his abusers.

Photo credit: Alex Milan Tracy / AP Images

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IV. 41 LGBTQ /H SURVEY PARTICIPANTS DESCRIBE WIDESPREAD ABUSE IN ICE AND CBP JAILS.

Nelly is a transgender woman who was detained in CBP and ICE custody in 2023 with male populations. Nelly
recounted numerous incidents of harassment, including being asked by another detained person to come and
stay in his cell and if she was “ready to be penetrated.” In other instances, she was asked invasive, sexually
explicit questions like “Does anal hurt? Do you have [an] orgasm? How does it feel?” In another incident, a
detained man shared information that he had overheard her telling an asylum officer during her credible fear
interview about her desire to transition. He told others, she “wants to operate on her tits and ass.” Nelly was
intimidated by the harassment and feared for her safety.
Kiana, a trans woman who was detained in Arizona in male detention units in 2022 stated, “The showers were
a huge issue because the men shower all together and the dividers between the shower stalls [only] go up to
the waist, so everyone can see each other’s chests. But I have breasts, and I couldn’t take my bra off. I was so
uncomfortable and men were standing everywhere and staring at me and making comments about me having
breasts.”
All of the organizational participants who provide direct services to detained
people similarly reported that their clients were targets of verbal harassment by
staff and other detained people, for example:
•

According to a Las Americas attorney representing people in New Mexico, a
client told her that a jail staff member referred to him as a “gay bitch.” During
the same incident, the jail staff member made another homophobic comment,
telling the client, “You got sick because you’re pregnant from all your prior
boyfriends.”

•

A Florence Project attorney, who represents people in Arizona, received a
report from a client that a jail staff member called him a homophobic slur. In
a different incident, another LGBTQ client told an attorney that a jail staff
member referred to him as a “bitch.” The attorney’s transgender clients also
reported that jail staff regularly misgendered them.

•

An AFSC service provider said he heard from transgender clients that before
the implementation of a telehealth system that allows detained people to
receive gender affirming care online with an outside provider, they avoided
going to the medical center at the Denver Contract Detention Facility
because they experienced homophobia and transphobia there.

•

A NYLPI attorney who represented a gay man detained in Louisiana stated
that her client heard other detained people say that they would kill a gay
person if they came in contact with them. This was a central reason why the
client was too scared to disclose his sexual orientation during his CFI and did
not pass.

“The showers were a
huge issue because
the men shower all
together and the
dividers between the
shower stalls [only]
go up to the waist,
so everyone can see
each other’s chests.
But I have breasts,
and I couldn’t take
my bra off.”
—
Kianna,
trans woman detained
in Arizona in male
detention units.

These disturbing examples are unfortunately not an exception, but the norm in
ICE and CBP detention for LGBTQ/H people. DHS has been repeatedly put on
notice of the prevalence of homophobic and transphobic abuse and harassment
in detention facilities and failed to take action.83

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IV. 41 LGBTQ /H SURVEY PARTICIPANTS DESCRIBE WIDESPREAD ABUSE IN ICE AND CBP JAILS.

C. THE MAJORITY OF SURVEY PARTICIPANTS
REPORTED EXPERIENCING MEDICAL NEGLECT
OR WERE OUTRIGHT DENIED MEDICAL
TREATMENT IN DETENTION.
Detained individuals cannot access medical care
without the facilitation and permission of federal
immigration authorities. Standards of care vary across
CBP and ICE facilities, but neglect or denial of medical
care is endemic to both. CBP routinely confiscates
a variety of personal belongings from people in
its custody, including prescription medication and
inhalers, resulting in adults’ and children’s rapid
health deterioration and hospitalization.84 CBP’s
primary contractor for medical services routinely
understaffs and underpays medical professionals
at CBP facilities, keeps incomplete or inaccurate
records, and hires nursing assistants with little to
no experience in health care.85 The result of such
substandard care has been deadly.86
Medical neglect in ICE custody also has fatal
consequences.87 Medical expert review of deaths in ICE
custody between 2011 and 2018 showed alarming rates
of ICE jail staff ignoring abnormal vital signs leading to
untimely deaths, in violation of ICE’s own standards of
care.88 In 2019, California’s then-Attorney General Xavier
Becerra produced a detailed report on conditions of
confinement in ICE jails across the state, finding that
nurses “fail to check vital signs for conditions that
present as simple matters, but could have more serious
causes that a full evaluation would reveal.”89 Even ICE
has recognized that some of its facilities are unsafe and
must be closed, but has failed to take action to shut
them all down. In August 2022, ICE officials drafted a
memorandum recommending the closure or downsizing
of nine immigration detention centers in part because
these jails were unsafe, unsanitary, and failed to provide
minimum healthcare.90 As of February 2024, over 50
members of the U.S. House of Representatives wrote to
the Biden administration expressing concern that twothirds of these facilities (all of them for-profit) remain
open and continue to provide substandard care.91
Survey participants corroborate CBP and ICE’s pattern
of medical neglect and woefully inadequate care.

Out of 41 participants, 28 reported receiving
inadequate medical care or asking for medical care
and not receiving it while in ICE or CBP detention.
Seventeen survey participants reported being
people who live with HIV. Thirteen of them reported
issues with their HIV care. Delays of weeks or months
in receiving HIV care were common in ICE detention,
while CBP routinely confiscated and/or denied access
to HIV medication. Even where HIV medication was
accessible, participants had to advocate and request
on multiple occasions to receive care. Organizational
participants also reported incidents where their clients
were denied HIV medication or care while detained.
Denis Davydov, a gay man from Russia formerly
detained at an ICE facility, speaks at a rally in
support of the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act.

Four participants reported significant delays or outright
denials of gender-affirming hormonal treatment by ICE
or CBP.
Elisa, a trans woman repeatedly denied hormonal
treatment, reported, “The only thing you get is
Ibuprofen.”
Karina, a trans woman who also requested hormonal
treatment, was told by the jail staff that she
needed to be detained for a year to receive hormone
treatment.

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IV. 41 LGBTQ /H SURVEY PARTICIPANTS DESCRIBE WIDESPREAD ABUSE IN ICE AND CBP JAILS.

Two participants, Fidel and Zora, reported acute tooth
pain and/or a cracked and broken tooth, but were
never referred to a dentist.
Zora is a trans woman who has breast implants. In ICE
custody, one of her implants burst. As a result, Zora
was having difficulty moving her arm and her fingers
and fingernails were turning purple. She experienced
high levels of persistent pain, but the medical staff did
not attend to Zora’s concerns until she developed a
high fever, causing sweating and shaking. Eventually,
Zora was taken to the medical unit. The medical staff
could not explain well what was happening because
they were not using an interpreter. The medics gave
her a mammogram but could not determine what
was wrong. Zora said that the medical staff “didn’t
even want to touch me because they didn’t know
my symptoms.” She started to turn white and lost
sensation in her left arm. Zora was eventually sent
to see a doctor outside of the detention center. She
was crying and her arm was swollen. The doctor
also could not diagnose the problem and said that
Zora needed an MRI. However, an MRI required ICE’s
approval. It took weeks for the MRI to be approved,
and by that time Zora was getting released from
custody.
Fidel, a gay man, reported bleeding from his rectum
for two weeks and filled out multiple requests for
emergency medical care, all of which were ignored
by jail staff. Eventually, a nurse gave him some
medication to address the issue.
Among the 34 participants who sought medical care
and received it, 17 participants shared that they had to
persistently advocate to receive these services.

Elisa, who had been taking hormones in her country
of origin, was experiencing severe headaches.
She believed this was because of the cessation of
hormone therapy. She made repeated requests for
hormones or a medical evaluation, but her requests
were ignored.
Survey participants also reported fearing that asking
for medical help would lead to adverse consequences.
Humberto, a gay man, reported apprehension about
sharing some of his physical and psychological
symptoms, because he heard from other detained
people that, “if you go to medical a lot, you’ll be
denied release because you’re sick.”
In ICE custody, Belinda, a non-binary survey
participant, heard detained people say that “you
can’t tell the staff you’re sick or you’ll be placed in the
pit [i.e., solitary confinement].” Belinda developed
a cough in custody, but they were scared to see a
doctor because they did not want to be placed in
solitary confinement.
Zacarias, a gay man, was scared to tell CBP officers
that he is living with HIV because he was afraid this
would result in a deportation.
Survey participants suffered significant emotional,
psychological, and physical harm as a result of the
systemic medical neglect and mistreatment in CBP
and ICE custody. Nikolai, a gay man detained by
both agencies, reflected: “Imagine sitting in jail and
not getting your medication. You’re feeling worse
and worse and worse.”

ICE confiscated Saïd’s asthma inhaler, returning it
after one month of repeated complaints.
Selvin, a bisexual man living with HIV, had to advocate
to keep his medical records, which he needed to
convince CBP jail staff that he needed access to HIV
medication at two different facilities.
Nathan, another bisexual man, submitted three
requests to see a doctor after suspecting he may
test positive for syphilis, which he did.

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IV. 41 LGBTQ /H SURVEY PARTICIPANTS DESCRIBE WIDESPREAD ABUSE IN ICE AND CBP JAILS.

ICE Jails Routinely Fail to Provide GenderAffirming Care
Fourteen survey participants identified as
transgender. Gender-affirming care, including
hormone therapy, is medically necessary
treatment that significantly improves mental
health outcomes for trans and non-binary
people, including reducing suicidality.92 Current
detention standards provide for hormone therapy
in immigration detention. However, there are
problematic limitations on such care, and access
can be difficult to obtain.93 Moreover, hormone
therapy is sometimes poorly monitored, there are
delays and interruptions in care, and hormones
are sometimes prescribed at significantly reduced
dosages, leading to negative health outcomes.
Dr. Elizabeth Kvach, a specialist in trans care
who participated in an organizational interview,
provides medical services to trans people
detained in the trans pod in Aurora, Colorado.
She reported that hormone therapy is often
unreasonably delayed for months because people
are forced to undergo unnecessary psychological
evaluations not in accordance with international
professional standards of care. In other cases,
hormone therapy is significantly delayed because
of record transfers from other facilities. The
delays and interruptions in hormone therapy
can be especially damaging for people who
had previously been taking hormones, but had
to stop abruptly because they were detained.
Stopping hormone treatment can also retrigger
gender dysphoria and lead to depression and
worsening mental health outcomes. Further, Dr.
Kvach observed that Aurora medical staff does not
always conduct medical labs in a timely manner.
This makes it difficult to monitor and evaluate a
patient’s health, and to detect whether someone is
experiencing side-effects of hormone therapy or
is getting a dose that is not right for them.

D. MENTAL HEALTHCARE IN DETENTION IS
SUBSTANDARD OR NONEXISTENT.
Numerous
scholars,
advocates,
and
medical
professionals continue to report on the abysmal
mental healthcare in ICE and CBP facilities.94 An ICE
whistleblower report bolstered these accounts.95
For LGBTQ immigrants, including those seeking
asylum, lack of mental healthcare is dire because
they are at an increased risk of surviving hate crimes,
interpersonal violence, and sexual assault while in
custody, which compounds anti-LGBTQ persecution
they may have already fled. This predisposes LGBTQ
community members to higher rates of post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, even prior to
detention.96
Survey participants reported serious, recurrent
deficiencies in mental healthcare for LGBTQ/H people
in immigration detention. Twenty of the 41 people
interviewed reported new or increased mental
health symptoms while in detention, including hives,
panic attacks, mental health crises, flashbacks, and
self-harm. Examples from our survey include:
Leona was diagnosed with depression at an ICE
detention center and saw a psychologist there.
She found these sessions helpful. However, the
psychologist had a big case load and frequently
could not see Leona. Not receiving the psychological
assistance that she needed affected Leona’s health
and wellbeing. She lost a lot of weight, in part due to
being depressed. Sometimes Leona felt that she was
having emotional breakdowns, when she lay in bed
and cried.
David requested to start taking medication in
detention in response to new mental health
symptoms that appeared after he survived
homophobic acts of violence against him by another
detained man, and ICE jail staff failed to respond.
David began to experience flashbacks, panic
attacks, anxiety, and depression after the attack.
When recounting his flashbacks, he said, “[T]here’s
a sensation, you just recall everything, words he told
me, he took me off the bunk, and I’m scared of him
beating me up again. Your breathing changes, gets
quicker.”

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IV. 41 LGBTQ /H SURVEY PARTICIPANTS DESCRIBE WIDESPREAD ABUSE IN ICE AND CBP JAILS.

Nikolai was diagnosed with depression and, prior to
being detained, had been prescribed medication as
treatment. Yet once detained, CBP jail staff ignored
his requests to receive antidepressants. Even as
his symptoms grew worse and he experienced
withdrawal, he did not receive his medication.
Although our survey did not specifically ask participants
about self-harm or suicidal ideation while in detention,
three participants voluntarily disclosed that they
had attempted suicide while in detention due to
mental health symptoms. All three of the participants
who reported suicide attempts are transgender.
Kilian, a trans man, attributed suicidal acts to abuse
and surveillance by the jail staff. After one suicide
attempt, Kilian was placed in solitary confinement for
about 10 days. The experience was very traumatic
for him. Kilian was forced to undress and was put in
a straitjacket. Kilian did not want to take his clothes
off because he felt embarrassed, but the staff made
him do it anyway. Kilian stated, “[T]hey took away
my clothes, even underwear. They put me in a shirt
that they put on crazy people. The worst abuse is
taking my clothes away without my permission.”
Kilian reports that after his second suicide attempt,
the jail staff did not take him to see a mental health
professional. “They wouldn’t care unless I killed
myself,” Kilian said.
Many of the participants who experienced mental health
symptoms never saw a mental health professional while
in detention. Of the few participants that ultimately
reported seeing a mental health professional (11 of
41 participants), seven reported that their care was
inadequate.
Over a decade after ICE’s own memorandum
acknowledging the special vulnerability of LGBTQ
individuals being subjected to solitary confinement,

“They wouldn’t care
unless I killed myself.”
—
Kilian,
a trans man abused
and surveilled by jail staff.
roughly half of LGBTQ/H participants in our survey
(20 of 41) were subject to this practice.99 Immigrant
participants we interviewed were placed in solitary
confinement because of reporting homophobic or
transphobic harassment, after attempting self-harm
(at times in response to detention conditions), or
simply because jail staff appeared to not otherwise
know where to place them. Organizational participants
also reported LGBTQ clients being placed in solitary
confinement and instances where clients did not
disclose their LGBTQ status for fear of being placed in
isolation.
Some participants were sent to solitary confinement as
a punitive measure, despite not having done something
to warrant disciplinary “segregation.”
Elisa, a transgender woman, recalled, “When you
complain, they put you in the punishment cell.” She
was first held in an infirmary area of the detention
facility after requesting not to be housed incorrectly
with men. Subsequently, corrections officers placed
her in solitary confinement multiple times after she
complained to the officers about sexual harassment
and abuse. They would not allow her to join the
general population until she was evaluated by a
psychologist; in one instance this took weeks to be
scheduled.

Solitary Confinement
It is generally defined as isolating someone in a cell for 22 hours or more per day without meaningful human
contact.97 Cloaking this harsh reality, ICE and CBP describe the practice as “segregation” or “segregated
housing,” using it as both punishment (termed “disciplinary segregation”) and allegedly for safety (“administrative
segregation”).98

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IV. 41 LGBTQ /H SURVEY PARTICIPANTS DESCRIBE WIDESPREAD ABUSE IN ICE AND CBP JAILS.

E. SURVEY PARTICIPANTS REPORTED PRIVACY VIOLATIONS AND NONCONSENSUAL
DISCLOSURES OF LGBTQ/H STATUS.
DHS has some standards protecting confidentiality of detained LGBTQ/H people (See Appendix A). But like
many other DHS detention standards, these are not consistently followed, as is demonstrated by the participants’
experiences.
Out of the 41 survey participants, 18 reported having their sexual orientation, gender identity, HIV status
or other confidential medical information disclosed in custody without their consent. These breaches of
confidentiality occurred primarily in CBP detention, but some took place in ICE detention centers. Two more people
reported that other medical information was disclosed in ICE custody. Additionally, two participants witnessed
other people’s private information about their sexual orientation or medical histories publicly disclosed.

Outed in CBP Custody
Six survey participants who came to the San Ysidro port of
entry reported being housed in a CBP facility that had cells
labeled as “gay,” “transgender,” or “HIV.” For example, Boris is a
gay man who presented at the San Ysidro port of entry. At the
CBP facility, Boris was held alone in the cell with the word “gay”
written on it. The cell door had a small window, and, according
to Boris, others who were detained walked by and tried to
peek through “to see who the gay was.” Fiona is a lesbian who
presented at San Ysidro port of entry. In CBP custody, she was
held in a cell with the word “gay” written on it. She asked the
officer to take the sign down, but he refused. Bruno is a gay
man living with HIV who also presented at the San Ysidro port of
entry. Bruno reports that while in custody in what appears to be
a CBP facility a guard put an “HIV” sign on his cell.
Nikolai is a gay man who presented at the San Ysidro port of
entry. Nikolai was detained in the general population, but he
observed that the facility had cells with signs on the door that
said, “HIV,” “GAY,” and “TRANSGENDER” in big letters. The cells
had windows, so detained people who walked by tried to peek
inside. Nikolai stated that these conditions were “like a zoo.”
He further stated that when people were transferred, due to
the lack of confidentiality, LGBTQ individuals or people living
with HIV could be identified by others. Nikolai knows a samesex couple who was detained in the LGBTQ-labeled cells. The
couple was harassed during a transfer as a result of being outed
because of this arrangement.

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IV. 41 LGBTQ /H SURVEY PARTICIPANTS DESCRIBE WIDESPREAD ABUSE IN ICE AND CBP JAILS.

Six out of 17 participants living with HIV reported
being forced to publicly disclose their HIV status
during interactions with CBP staff.
Cris is a transgender woman who presented to CBP
officers at a port of entry to seek asylum. An officer
demanded to know in front of other migrants what
Cris’s HIV medication was. Cris recalls the officer
saying, “Tell me what you’re taking these for or you
won’t enter. I want to hear it from your mouth.” When
Cris told the officer it was HIV medication, she noticed
people trying to distance themselves from her. Later,
during processing, no one wanted to sit on the same
bench as her. Cris says that the “experience was very
uncomfortable. Other people started to see me as
strange.”
Manuel is a gay man who presented to CBP to seek
asylum. When CBP officers detained Manuel, they
asked him in front of other migrants if he had any
medical conditions. He told the officers that he is HIV
positive. He was scared to disclose this information in
front of other people, but he was also scared that his
HIV medication might be confiscated. Later he saw a
medical professional in CBP custody and discussed
being HIV positive again in a non-confidential
space. Manuel stated that “[A] lot of people don’t
understand what it means to be HIV positive and
discriminate because of it.”
Selvin presented to CBP officers. He had to tell the
officers in the presence of other detained people that
he is HIV positive. As a result, other people “started
to reject [him] and not go near [him].” Later, Selvin
overheard detained people talking about him and his
partner, saying that Selvin and his partner had AIDS.

“[A] lot of people don’t understand what it
means to be HIV positive and discriminate
because of it.”

Theo is a bisexual man living with HIV who presented
to CBP officers to seek asylum. During processing,
an officer told Theo to take his medication out of his
pocket and put it in the bag. When the officer saw that
Theo had HIV medication she called for a different
officer, saying “you have AIDS” loudly in Spanish in
front of other migrants. Theo tried to explain that he
is HIV positive and does not have AIDS. Theo felt very
vulnerable because his HIV status was disclosed in
front of other people. The officers then took Theo to
speak to another officer who again said that he had
“AIDS.” Theo just agreed with the officer, rather than
clarifying that he is HIV positive and does not have
AIDS, because he felt stressed and overwhelmed.
Other survey participants reported their LGBTQ/H
status being disclosed in ICE custody:
Kevin was scared to disclose to a CBP officer that he
is living with HIV and needs medication because there
were other people around. He was later transferred
to a detention center in New Mexico. There, the
medical staff only spoke English, so Kevin had to use
the help of another detained person to communicate
that he needed HIV medication. As a result, other
detained people found out and asked the staff to
move Kevin to a different cell because they did not
want to share living quarters with an HIV-positive
person. Kevin felt hurt that people ostracized him
due to ignorance.
Benjamin is a gay man who was detained in a county
jail that had a contract with ICE. The officers working
in the jail outed Benjamin to other detained people.
Benjamin’s prison ID card, which was displayed on his
cell door, also identified him as gay. Benjamin reports
being physically assaulted various times by other
detained people because of his sexual orientation.
Outing LGBTQ/H people in detention contributes to
the climate of hostility, violence, and lack of safety that
participants experienced.

—
Manuel,
gay man who presented to CBP to seek asylum.

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IV. 41 LGBTQ /H SURVEY PARTICIPANTS DESCRIBE WIDESPREAD ABUSE IN ICE AND CBP JAILS.

F. SURVEY PARTICIPANTS ROUTINELY
STRUGGLED TO ACCESS ATTORNEYS
TO ADVOCATE ON THEIR BEHALF WHILE
DETAINED.
Although civil in nature, immigration proceedings
have very high stakes — deportation to dangerous or
deadly conditions,100 family separation and banishment
of individuals making central contributions to their
families and communities, and the lifelong trauma
and impact on deported people and their loved ones.
Nevertheless, there is no guaranteed right to counsel
for immigrants, including detained individuals. As of
December 2023, representation rates for immigrants
in deportation proceedings, whether detained or
released, stood at 30% — a rate that plummeted following
dramatic increases in immigration enforcement over
the past five years.101
Detention severely increases the chances of people
being unrepresented during their immigration
proceedings; the few who are able to retain counsel
while detained see their odds of winning increase
tenfold.102 Immigration jails are often in remote locations,
affording detained people little to no access to legal
service providers. For example, a 2017 survey of legal
service providers in New Mexico and Texas revealed
that the providers could represent approximately 6%
of detained individuals at ICE’s Cibola prison at any
given time — when the providers are stretched “at their
maximum capacity.” 103 Frequent transfers between ICE
facilities also disrupt individuals’ access to retained
counsel and bring despair to detained people searching
for attorneys.
Many facilities lack basic infrastructure to facilitate free
telephonic access to counsel,104 disparately harming
indigent immigrants seeking to retain or communicate
with counsel. The minority of detained individuals who
have retained attorneys often struggle to meet with
them in confidential settings or at reliable intervals,
as visitation rooms are frequently limited and force
attorneys to compete with one another.105 In CBP jails,
access to counsel is near nonexistent, even when
asylum seekers undergo high-stakes screenings that
could result in their imminent deportation without
judicial review.106

Out of 41 participants, seven reported they did not
know they could call a lawyer, did not know how to
use the phone to call for a lawyer, or did not know
who they could call to find a lawyer.
One participant, Dimitri, was instructed on how to
use the phones in English, a language he did not
understand.
Four survey participants made clear that access to
counsel was particularly inaccessible in CBP custody.
One of those participants, Belinda, recalled, “[T]here
was a sign on the wall saying that they had the right
to call a consulate. It didn’t say anything about legal
calls.”
Many of the participants who had a CFI in ICE
custody — a pivotal screening that could result
in summary deportation — were not represented
at the time. This left participants alone to present
their claims and advocate for themselves, often
with inadequate interpretation, during their
telephonic interview. Miriam, an unrepresented
trans woman, reported that the USCIS asylum
officer who conducted her interview continuously
misgendered and interrupted her. She recalls: “I
felt it was psychological abuse. I spoke on the phone
from a private space but did not feel comfortable to
share. The asylum officer could not see me by phone
so the least they could do was to be respectful of my
gender identity and expression.”

Photo credit: Steven Rubin

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IV. 41 LGBTQ /H SURVEY PARTICIPANTS DESCRIBE WIDESPREAD ABUSE IN ICE AND CBP JAILS.

Privacy and cost presented major barriers for access to
counsel, impeding LGBTQ/H participants from sharing
their gender and sexual identity, as well as their HIV
status.
David described phones in large dormitories within
a Virginia ICE jail, with no privacy. “When you talk on
these phones the guys around you are listening, and
you can’t even say things out loud because everyone
is listening.” He used to send letters instead, but
“you have to pay for it and then wait for letters to be
delivered.”
Humberto had to wait until other detained people
were away from earshot to speak with his attorney
about his HIV status. He had no choice but to use
a public phone to conduct his legal calls. When a
protest broke out due to conditions in ICE custody,
the facility cut off access to public phones for days
as collective punishment. For those who had access
to private calls, or overcame their fear or discomfort
with speaking on the phone in public spaces, cost
often presented an additional barrier. Miriam recalls:
“I could not call unless my lawyers put money in my
commissary. Calls were not confidential.”
Several organizational participants similarly reported
that lack of privacy hindered clients’ ability to
communicate. For example:
•

A Florence Project attorney who works with people
at Arizona ICE facilities reported hearing from
clients that they feel uncomfortable discussing
their LGBTQ status when they call counsel. This is
because phones are often located in public areas
and even when phones are located in private
rooms, the rooms lack soundproofing, making
conversations easy to overhear.

•

A Las Americas attorney who represents individuals
in New Mexico facilities, including in their CFIs,
noted that one center conducts CFIs in a large room
separated by room dividers, so what is being said
during interviews is easily overheard. Consequently,
clients are scared to share important information
with asylum officers, like sexual orientation or
gender identity. One of Las Americas’ clients told
the attorney that he did not disclose information

regarding LGBTQ-based persecution during his
CFI because of the lack of privacy. The client failed
his CFI.
Although some ICE facilities post lists of legal service
providers, survey participants struggled to get a hold
of overburdened attorneys.
Xavier recalls: “[Y]ou get a pro bono list but they
don’t always answer.” Alberto, who was searching for
attorneys, recalled that he had a limited number of
free calls per week; if he could not contact an attorney
within those calls, his family had to send him money
to cover calls at the rate of $1.50 per minute. Elisa
and Issa, participants who lacked financial support,
had to hold back from calling counsel altogether and
saved their questions until their attorneys visited
them — though visits were rare due to the remote
location of their jail.
Denis, who is a gay man suffering from HIV-related
complications that require close monitoring and
care, was unable to find an attorney throughout his
immigration proceedings. The immigration judge
denied Denis relief and he decided not to appeal,
although he had a fear of returning to his country of
origin. However, Denis was scared that his detention
would be prolonged if he appealed, which would
cause his health to deteriorate further.

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IV. 41 LGBTQ /H SURVEY PARTICIPANTS DESCRIBE WIDESPREAD ABUSE IN ICE AND CBP JAILS.

LGBTQ/H survey respondents experienced
family separation
Twelve out of 41 survey participants reported
that ICE or CBP separated them from their
loved ones, whether a partner, spouse, or
sibling — particularly ignoring, casting doubt on,
or blatantly disregarding their familial relationship
because they were LGBTQ. Though traveling
alone, Nikolai reported witnessing two married
couples separated by CBP officers who distrusted
the authenticity of the two queer couples’
certificates. Dimitri, a gay man traveling with his
partner who is living with HIV, had to ask a doctor
about the whereabouts of his partner, as CBP
officers refused to give him any updates on him
or his well being. Boris, a married participant,
reported only seeing his spouse by chance, in the
cafeteria of their CBP jail, while the two of them
were separately kept in solitary confinement.
Organizational participants reported similar issues.
A Las Americas attorney serving detained people
in New Mexico worked with a married lesbian
couple from Colombia who were separated in
ICE custody and sent to two different detention
centers. One woman was released from custody,
while the other was detained and ordered
removed. A Florence Project attorney reported
a case of a transgender woman who came to the
United States together with her male partner.
The client told the attorney that initially, they
were detained in the same housing unit, but were
separated after facility staff realized they were a
couple. These forced separations compounded
the distress participants faced. Fiona, who
was separated from her partner in custody,
reported that her partner experienced significant
psychological deterioration and a hospitalization
as a result of the federal government’s actions.

Four participants reported outright hostility or
obstruction from ICE when they tried to assert
their right to counsel or as they tried to represent
themselves.
Tara, a trans woman, reported that guards would
laugh at her when she asked to speak to her attorney,
taunting her to sign a deportation order if she really
wanted to get out of detention.
Zora was told that she did not have the right to a legal
call until after she had her immigration court, which is
incorrect. Zora also reported that the video calls with
her attorney were cut short. She could not say what
she wanted to say because there was a guard in the
room with her. Additionally, Zora had an in-person
meeting with an attorney. When she was talking to the
attorney, the detention center manager was standing
behind her. The attorney asked the manager to leave,
which he did. But Zora could see him through a door
window, pacing outside of the room.
Two participants, Leona and Saïd, reported that
ICE denied them access to the law library. Saïd also
reported having to plead to ICE to return his legal
documents after staff made photocopies for him.
Lacking access to attorneys also meant diminished
oversight into the conditions suffered by LGBTQ/H
participants.
Two survey participants were deported after
the survey was conducted. Quinn was detained
in ICE custody for about a year. They suffered from
health issues and reported not receiving adequate
medical care. Quinn found prolonged detention
unbearable, and after their case was denied, they
could not endure being detained even longer for
the duration of the appeal process. As a result,
Quinn returned to their country of origin and was
separated, most likely permanently, from their elderly
parents and siblings who reside in the United States.

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IV. 41 LGBTQ /H SURVEY PARTICIPANTS DESCRIBE WIDESPREAD ABUSE IN ICE AND CBP JAILS.

“They have you with hands behind your back, head down.
If you turn around, they yell at you. Maybe it’s the norm.
It’s my first time in this country.”
–
Boris,
survey participant recalling his experience in CBP custody.

CBP Jails Are Rife with Dehumanizing Abuses
In addition to LGBTQ/H-specific concerns described
throughout this report, participants recounted other
abuse and unsanitary conditions while in CBP custody.
For example, there were several reports of hostility
and threatening language from CBP officers such as an
officer forcefully striking a detained man on the head
and another yelling, “Are you dumb?!” and reaching for
his gun when detained people moved toward him. Other
participants reported that officers threw food at them,
or denied them water except with morning and evening
meals. One participant recalled officers scolding a
colleague for asking if migrants wanted more food
saying, “Why’re you letting them have food freely?”
Extremely cold temperatures that “felt like torture”
or “punishment” were another common theme. Other
participants reported that the lights and sometimes
televisions were on 24 hours a day, disorienting
people and making it impossible to sleep. A number
of participants did not have access to showers and
personal hygiene items like toothpaste and a toothbrush
for prolonged periods of time. Participants who were

housed in tents reported using portable toilets with
excrement and urine on the floors. Others reported
dirty and smelly cells in detention centers with toilets
next to the sleeping areas. As one participant noted,
“[W]hen you sleep, there is a toilet right next to you. You
can be sleeping and someone will be [defecating] next
to you. It’s disgusting.”
Several participants reported that toilets and showers
in the facilities did not provide sufficient privacy. One
woman described having to use toilets that were within
the line of sight of the male officers, others mentioned
cameras where officers could observe migrants
showering and using the toilet. Many people avoided
going to the bathroom because “everyone was watching
you.”
Many participants also reported CBP making them
sign immigration-related paperwork in English, which
they did not understand and which was not adequately
explained or translated to them.

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V. Closing
recommendations
The experience of these 41 survey participants confirms what voluminous studies
have previously shown – DHS is incapable of safely detaining LGBTQ/H people.
Decades of documented abuses and failed reform efforts have revealed the
inevitable and avoidable harms of CBP and ICE’s carceral system. As Zoe, a trans
asylum seeker and survey participant reflected regarding her time in CBP and
ICE custody, “no human being should be held there.” This system creates and
exacerbates physical and mental health crises, dangers that are particularly
pronounced for LGBTQ/H individuals. The government’s continued use of this
abusive detention system, which operates with impunity and puts vulnerable
people in physical and psychological danger, is inexcusable.
All of these harms are preventable and avoidable because the United States
has the power to phase out the use of immigrant detention for all, including for
LGBTQ/H people. Upon taking office, President Biden took bold steps in the
domestic sphere to address the United States’ troubling reliance on jails and
prisons, when he ordered the closure of private prisons in the federal criminal
system. He rooted this action in the “broad consensus that our current system of
mass incarceration imposes significant costs and hardships on our society and
communities and does not make us safer.”107 Nevertheless, those same private
prison companies are thriving as they profit off ICE’s detention practices, and
tens of thousands of immigrants languish daily in ICE and CBP jails.108 The Biden
administration must bring its immigration policy in alignment with its commitment
to equitable rights for LGBTQ individuals and pledges of racial equity109 by phasing
out all immigrant detention.110

The Biden
administration must
bring its immigration
policy in alignment
with its commitment
to equitable rights for
LGBTQ individuals
and pledges of racial
equity by phasing
out all immigrant
detention.

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V. CLOSING RECOMMENDATIONS

Congress should also pass the Dignity for Detained
Immigrants Act, which institutes a presumption of
liberty rather than a presumption of detention for
all immigrants. The Act requires the release of most
LGBTQ people with rare exceptions, phases out the
use of private immigration detention, reduces reliance
on detention, and enhances oversight in the U.S.
immigration detention system, among other crucial
provisions.111

rights and needs in immigrant detention.115 Opaque
and insufficient standards of care contribute to the
culture of impunity that directly harms LGBTQ/H
people in detention. Transparency, accountability,
and uniformity in the application of standards is key,
so that CBP and ICE officers and contractors can
be held to those standards and face consequences
when they fail to meet the needs of individuals in
their custody.

There are five concrete steps the executive branch can
take in the interim, while phasing out detention. These
include:

4. Terminating contracts with facilities that fail to
meet basic standards of safety and care: Despite
repeated findings that ICE jails do not comply with
detention standards by government watchdog
agencies, such as OIG and GAO, and by ICE’s own
inspections, DHS has failed to meaningfully redress
these violations.116 As a result, facilities with histories
of chronic abuse continue to operate under ICE
contracts without consequence. DHS can and must
terminate such contracts117 that endanger the health
and safety of detained people, including LGBTQ/H
individuals.

1.

Using parole authority to the fullest extent
for arriving asylum seekers: The federal parole
statute provides the U.S. government broad
authority to release asylum seekers on parole,112
but the Biden administration frequently denies or
delays the release of asylum seekers who meet
agency standards for release and parole denials are
often disparately applied to people seeking asylum
from Black majority countries.113 The administration
should use its parole authority to the fullest extent to
ensure people seeking asylum can seek protection
in the safety of their homes and communities.

2. Remove recent arrivals from the administration’s
targeted enforcement priority list: The
administration should remove recent border arrivals
from the categories of individuals considered to
be ICE enforcement priorities. Targeting arriving
asylum seekers for enforcement functionally serves
to punish individuals for the act of seeking safety,
which imperils U.S. compliance with international
asylum law.114
3. Provide transparency, accountability, and
uniformity on the detention standards across
CBP and ICE facilities, including in the treatment
of LGBTQ/H people: The current standards, which
we detail in Appendix A, provide for a byzantine
system that endangers the health and wellbeing
of LGBTQ/H asylum seekers. Transgender people
continue to suffer abhorrent harms because neither
ICE’s Transgender Care Memorandum nor its use of
a special “pod” or unit for transgender people have
led to the protection of transgender people’s basic

5. Promptly issue agency guidance protecting
vulnerable populations in custody, including
LGBTQ/H individuals: It is imperative that the
administration protect vulnerable populations from
the use of detention by issuing specific guidance
tailored to facilitating the prompt, safe release of
vulnerable people including LGBTQ/H individuals
to U.S. communities.
The United States has the power to take bold steps to
protect LGBTQ/H people in the short and long term. In
the words of Zora, a trans woman and survey participant,
“People can’t understand because they don’t know
how much you had to sacrifice” to come to the
United States and seek protection. Treating LGBTQ/H
people with the dignity they deserve begins with a
presumption of liberty in compliance with international
law, transparency and uniformity in the treatment of
people currently jailed by ICE or CBP, and protecting
vulnerable individuals from detention. All these steps
can and should be taken while phasing out the abusive
and harmful system of mass immigrant detention.

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VI. Appendices
APPENDIX A: CBP AND ICE’S
STANDARDS FOR PEOPLE IN FEDERAL
IMMIGRATION CUSTODY
There are no formal or enforceable regulations providing
the minimal standards of care for those detained by CBP
and ICE.117 Both systems operate under a set of internal
standards that are not legally binding and do not
provide a meaningful mechanism for redress for those
who endure mistreatment that violates the standards.
ICE’S PATCHWORK OF STANDARDS
ICE uses a patchwork of standards across over more than
100 facilities, with contractors and facilities referencing
one of four sets of detention standards in their contracts
with ICE. ICE has developed these standards primarily
based on criminal correctional guidelines despite the
civil nature of immigration proceedings.118 For years,
government watchdogs and civil society have tracked
and reported on ICE’s lack of compliance with even
these minimal basic standards of care.119 ICE’s oversight
system is riddled with loopholes that result in failure to
prevent persistent abuse and inhumane conditions.120
ICE’s most recently amended standards are the 2019
National Detention Standards, but it has not required
its contractors to adopt these standards into their
contracts, meaning that many facilities are still governed
by earlier sets of standards from 2000, 2008, or 2011.121
The four standards differ in the extent to which they
safeguard detained people’s rights, but even the most
comprehensive standards fall short of protecting
LGBTQ/H people in ICE custody. As the survey
demonstrates, LGBTQ/H individuals experienced
physical and sexual violence, verbal harassment, medical
neglect, and disclosure of confidential information,
including HIV status – all of which the above-mentioned
standards are supposed to prevent in theory but fail to
accomplish in practice.
PHYSICAL AND SEXUAL ABUSE
One way ICE standards purport to prevent physical and
sexual abuse is through a custody classification system,
which is designed to separate detained people based

on management considerations and concerns.122 The
2011 Performance-Based National Detention Standards
(2011 PBNDS) and the 2019 National Detention Standards
for Non-Dedicated Facilities (2019 NDS) recognize
that being LGBTQ is a “special vulnerability” requiring
“appropriate accommodation.” 123 However, neither
of the standards clearly defines what constitutes an
“appropriate accommodation” for someone with a
special vulnerability. Furthermore, the classification
system fails to adequately prevent abuse of LGBTQ
people at the hands of staff or detained individuals
who share the same custody classification. In practice,
detention centers often jail LGBTQ people in solitary
confinement as a means of addressing their safety
concerns.
Unlike the newer standards, the 2000 National
Detention Standards for Non-Dedicated Facilities
(2000 NDS) and the 2008 Performance-Based National
Detention Standards (2008 PBNDS) do not meaningfully
acknowledge that being LGBTQ constitutes a particular
vulnerability. However, both standards note that being
a “homosexual” is a “special management concern”
that might require “protective custody” a.k.a. solitary
confinement.124
With the enactment of the Prison Rape Elimination
Act (PREA) in 2003, ICE standards now require that
detention facilities have a written sexual abuse and
prevention policy.125 This requirement appears in the
2008 PBNDS, 2011 PBNDS, and 2019 NDS. However, only
the 2011 PBNDS and the 2019 NDS recognize that being
LGBTQ might put a detained person at an increased
risk of sexual abuse or assault.126 By contrast, the 2008
PBNDS do not affirmatively instruct the staff to consider
a person’s LGBTQ identity when assessing them for risk
of sexual victimization. The 2000 NDS do not expressly
address sexual assault prevention in custody or take into
account that LGBTQ people are particularly vulnerable
to sexual abuse and assault. (The 2000 NDS have a
general disciplinary system that prohibits sex crimes).127
Moreover, as was explained above, all four standards fail
to meaningfully address the fact that danger to LGBTQ
people often stems from

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APPENDIX A: CBP AND ICE’ S STANDARDS FOR PEOPLE IN FEDER AL IMMIGR ATION CUSTODY

jail staff or individuals detained alongside the LGBTQ
individuals. In short, ICE’s standards do not effectively
protect LGBTQ people from physical and sexual abuse
(as is outlined in Section IV.A above).
VERBAL ABUSE AND HARASSMENT
DHS policy and standards include some limited
protections against verbal abuse. For instance, the
Transgender Care Memorandum requires ICE to
provide a “respectful, safe, and secure environment for
all detainees, including those individuals who identify
as transgender” and prohibits “[d]iscrimination or
harassment of any kind based on a detainee’s actual or
perceived orientation or gender identity.” 128 However,
there are no mechanisms for accountability,129 and, as
was explained in Section II.D, the applicability of the
Memorandum across different detention facilities is
unclear.
The four ICE standards state that detained people have
“freedom from discrimination,” and “right to protection
from personal abuse … and harassment.130 However, only
the 2008 PBNDS, 2011 PBNDS, and 2019 NDS list “sexual
orientation” as a protected characteristic; the 2000
NDS does not include sexual orientation.131 Detained
people can use the grievance system to report various
issues in detention;132 and although the standards do
not state so explicitly, the grievance system can be
used to report homophobic and transphobic verbal
abuse. Additionally, some verbal abuse targeting
LGBTQ people can constitute a PREA violation.133
However, as demonstrated by the experiences of survey
participants , the standards are insufficient to protect
LGBTQ people. Detained people are often scared to
report the abuse, and jail staff often ignore the abuse,
even when they witness it.
CONFIDENTIALITY
The 2008 PBNDS, 2011 PBNDS and 2019 NDS
require facilities to ensure “the highest degree of
confidentiality” regarding a person’s HIV status.134 The
2000 NDS does not guarantee confidentiality specific
to HIV status, but the standards provide general
confidentiality protections around detained person’s
medical information.135 ICE detention standards
do not have explicit guidelines around keeping a

person’s sexual orientation confidential. However, 2011
PBNDS and 2019 NDS instruct jail staff to ask about a
person’s LGBTQ status when accessing them for risks
of sexual victimization. The standards instruct that
“[t]he facility shall implement appropriate controls
on the dissemination within the facility of responses
to questions [regarding LGBTQ identity] in order to
ensure that sensitive information is not exploited to
the detainee’s detriment by staff or other detainees
or inmates.” 136 Additionally, the standards require
facilities to keep a detained person’s files confidential,
including custody classification worksheets, which
might contain information about sexual orientation.137
The Transgender Care Memorandum provides
some additional confidentiality protections for a
person’s gender identity.138 Additionally, detention
standards mandate confidentiality of an individual’s
medical records, where sexual orientation might also
be disclosed.139 Despite these protections, survey
participants reported numerous instances where their
privacy was violated in ICE or CBP custody. (Section
IV.E.).
HIV CARE
All ICE standards provide for the provision of HIV care,
with the 2011 PBNDS and the 2019 NDS being the most
comprehensive of the four standards. Both standards
mandate that medical staff provide HIV diagnosis and
care “consistent with national recommendations and
guidelines disseminated through the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, the CDC, and the Infectious
Diseases Society of America.” 140 The standards also
require detention centers to make certain that all FDAapproved HIV medication is accessible, and for staff
to “develop and implement distribution procedures
to ensure timely and confidential access to [HIV]
medications.” 141 By contrast, the 2008 PBNDS and the
2000 NDS do not contain language requiring detention
centers to ensure timely access and distribution of
HIV medication. Despite these standards, survey
participants and service providers reported a variety of
issues surrounding HIV care. (Section IV.C.).
TRANS CARE
ICE has limited provisions around trans care in the 2011

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APPENDIX A: CBP AND ICE’ S STANDARDS FOR PEOPLE IN FEDER AL IMMIGR ATION CUSTODY

PBNDS and the 2019 NDS. The 2011 PBNDS state that
“Transgender detainees who were already receiving
hormone therapy when taken into ICE custody shall
have continued access. All transgender detainees
shall have access to mental health care, and other
transgender-related health care and medication based
on medical need. Treatment shall follow accepted
guidelines regarding medically necessary transitionrelated care.” 142 However, the 2019 NDS is significantly
more limited in scope only stating that “The facility
will notify ICE/ERO of any self-identified transgender
detainees and coordinate care with ICE/ERO based on
medical needs.” 143 The 2000 NDS and the 2008 PBNDS
do not address the medical needs of transgender
people in ICE custody.
As was discussed in Section II.D. of the report, ICE
issued a “Transgender Care Memorandum” in 2015.
The Memorandum’s protections are vague and
insufficient. For instance, the Memorandum instructs
that “placement into administrative segregation due
to a detainee’s identification as transgender should be
used only as a last resort and when no other temporary
housing option exists.” 144 But “last resort” is not defined,
and ICE routinely places transgender people into
solitary confinement as a matter of course (see Section
IV.D). Under the Memorandum, “transgender detainees
who were already receiving hormone therapy when
taken into ICE custody shall be provided continued
access, and all transgender detainees must have access
…based on medical need.” 145 However, medical need is
not clearly defined and transgender people regularly
experience long delays or have difficulties accessing
hormone therapy (See Section IV.C).
Further, many of the protections outlined in the
Memorandum are only mandatory for a facility if it has
incorporated the provisions into its contract. As of
2020, Reuters reported that no facility had modified
its contract to adopt the 2015 guidance although some
facilities had adopted the guidance “informally.” As of
the date of this report, the authors do not know exactly
which facilities have incorporated the Transgender Care
Memorandum into their contracts because ICE does
not post its contracts publicly in a consistent manner.
Our interview with ACLU of New Mexico revealed that in
early 2022, ICE modified its contract for the Otero County

Processing Center to incorporate trans care standards.
ICE also proposed to incorporate such standards into
its contract with the Torrance County Detention Facility
but received pushback from the facility. ACLU-NM
added that it is challenging to know which ICE facilities
have incorporated the trans care (and other) standards
because that information is not routinely publicly
disclosed. Even when incorporated, implementation
remains of concern. ICE’s own standards, including the
Transgender Care Memorandum, are routinely ignored
when it comes to transgender care as demonstrated by
past reports as well as the individual and organization
participants in this survey. ACLU of New Mexico
observed this firsthand, noting that even where there
is a contractual obligation, ICE does not always enforce
it with facilities.
CBP STANDARDS
CBP is governed by a set of standards known as the
National Standards on Transport, Escort, Detention,
and Search (TEDS), however CBP has a documented
history of noncompliance with these standards.146
Relevant here, the TEDS Standards provide that “CBP
has a zero tolerance policy prohibiting all forms of
sexual abuse of individuals in CBP custody . . .” 147The
TEDS Standards instruct CBP officers to screen
detained people for individuals who might be at-risk
due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.148
Officers then must provide at-risk populations with
“heightened protection,” including “continuous direct
sight and sound supervision, a single-occupancy
hold room, monitoring in open areas or placement in a
hold room actively monitored on video by an officer/
agent sufficiently proximate to intervene, unless
no such option is determined to be feasible.” 149 The
TEDS Standards do not, however, explicitly address
homophobic or transphobic mistreatment.
The TEDS Standards also do not have specific
requirements around provision of HIV medication
or hormones for transgender people. However, the
Standards do allow detained people to self-administer
medication they bring with them if it is prescribed in the
United States or “validated by a medical professional if
not U.S.-prescribed.” 150 The Standards further dictate
that non-U.S. prescribed medication should be

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APPENDIX A: CBP AND ICE’ S STANDARDS FOR PEOPLE IN FEDER AL IMMIGR ATION CUSTODY

validated by a medical professional or that a detained
person should be taken to a medical professional in
a timely manner to obtain a U.S. equivalent of their
medication.151
The TEDS Standards offer limited confidentiality
protection for vulnerability assessments, directing that
“[e]fforts should be taken to ensure that all assessments
are conducted in a way that provides detainees the
greatest level of privacy possible.” 152 The Standards
provide stronger protections for medical confidentiality,
directing that a person’s medical information “must be
protected.” 153

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APPENDIX B: SURVEY INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

APPENDIX B: SURVEY INTERVIEW
QUESTIONS

ICE/CBP CONDITIONS
Your participation is voluntary, and responses will be kept confidential. We may

report statistical results of this study to the public. In that case, you personal
information will be removed, so your identity will not be disclosed. Similarly, in
the event we use open-ended, narrative responses, we will remove your
identifying information from these responses, so your identity will not be
disclosed. You have the option not to respond to any questions that you choose.

1. Interviewer name

2. Interview date

* 3. Interviewee name

4. Interviewee telephone number

5. Interviewee email

Want to remove branding? Upgrade your account

Now create your own Jotform - It’s free!

Create your own Jotform

NO HUMAN B EING SHOULD B E HELD THERE | 38

APPENDIX B: SURVEY INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

NO HUMAN B EING SHOULD B E HELD THERE | 39

APPENDIX B: SURVEY INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

9. If known, what kind of protec tion are you appl yi ng for/have appl ied for in the
United S tates ?

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APPENDIX B: SURVEY INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

NO HUMAN B EING SHOULD B E HELD THERE | 41

APPENDIX B: SURVEY INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

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APPENDIX B: SURVEY INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

* 19. W hile in C B P detention, did you ever expe rienc e any of the following?
(pleas e c hec k all that appl y)

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APPENDIX B: SURVEY INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

NO HUMAN B EING SHOULD B E HELD THERE | 44

APPENDIX B: SURVEY INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

NO HUMAN B EING SHOULD B E HELD THERE | 45

APPENDIX B: SURVEY INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

NO HUMAN B EING SHOULD B E HELD THERE | 46

Sources
1
The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, Rule 44 (United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, 2015), Retrieved from
https://www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform/Nelson_Mandela_Rules-E-ebook.pdf (defining solitary confinement as confinement for 22 hours or
more a day without meaningful human contact.”).
2
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Customs and Border Protection National Standards on Transport, Escort, Detention, and Search, October 2015 [hereinafter
TEDS]. https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2020-Feb/cbp-teds-policy-october2015.pdf (6.0 Sexual Abuse and Victimization).

Alexander, Michelle. “The Injustice of This Moment Is Not an ‘Aberration.’” The New York Times, January 17, 2020. ’
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/17/opinion/sunday/michelle-alexander-new-jim-crow.html. Note that our report focuses on the detention of adults, primarily,
rather than the detention of unaccompanied children by the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Although children traveling with families are subject to CBP detention,
they are currently not subject to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention. Our report on CBP conditions includes conditions faced by accompanied and
unaccompanied children but primarily focuses on detention conditions faced by adult LGBTQ and HIV-positive individuals.

3

The Department of Homeland Security has the discretionary authority to release people arriving to seek asylum in the United States utilizing a mechanism known
as parole. 8 USC § 1182(d)(5) (providing authority to parole individuals on a case-by-case basis for humanitarian reasons or if otherwise in the public interest). In
practice, however, parole is utilized in an ad hoc and discriminatory manner, with higher rates of denials for asylum seekers from Black majority countries. The Biden
administration’s enforcement policies label recently arrived asylum seekers as enforcement “priorities,” further entrenching the use of incarceration as a de facto
response to arriving asylum seekers. See Gendelman, Rebecca. “‘I’m a Prisoner Here’: Biden Administration Policies Lock Up Asylum Seekers.” Human Rights First.
April 21, 2022. https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/im-a-prisoner-here-biden-administration-policies-lock-up-asylum-seekers/.

4

See, e.g., Gruberg, Sharita. “Dignity Denied: LGBT Immigrants in U.S. Immigration Detention.” Center for Amercian Progress. November 25, 2013.
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/reports/2013/11/25/79987/dignity-denied-lgbt-immigrants-in-u-s-immigration-detention/; Human Rights
Watch. “‘Do You See How Much I’m Suffering Here’ Abuse against Transgender Women in US Immigration Detention.” March 2016.
https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/us0316_web.pdf; Gruberg, Sharita. “ICE’s Rejection of Its Own Rules Is Placing LGBT Immigrants at Severe Risk of
Sexual Abuse.” Center for American Progress, May 30, 2018.
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/ices-rejection-rules-placing-lgbt-immigrants-severe-risk-sexual-abuse/; Immigration Equality et al. to Sec. Mayorkas, June
16, 2021. Re: The Abuse of Transgender and HIV-Positive People in Detention.
https://immigrationequality.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Ltr-to-DHS-and-ICE-re-Abuse-of-Trans-and-HIV-Positive-People.pdf; National Immigrant Justice Center
(NIJC) to Katherine Culliton-Gonzalez, Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Re: Request for investigation into physical and homophobic verbal abuse of LGBTQ
asylum seeker in immigration detention - Winn Correctional Center, Louisiana. Aug. 19, 2021,
https://immigrantjustice.org/press-releases/lgbtq-asylum-seeker-files-civil-rights-complaint-regarding-abuse-and-discrimination; Detention Watch Network, et al.,
December 6, 2023. Anthology of Abuse: Violence and Neglect at the Winn Correctional Center.
https://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/sites/default/files/reports/Winn%20Anthology%20of%20Abuse_w%20Letter_.pdf. See also Dreisbach, Tom. “Government’s
Own Experts Found ‘barbaric’ and ‘Negligent’ Conditions in ICE Detention.” NPR, August 16, 2023.
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/16/1190767610/ice-detention-immigration-government-inspectors-barbaric-negligent-conditions; Martinez, Freddy, and Nick
Schwellenbach. “DHS’s Secret Reports on ICE Detention.” Project on Government Oversight. August 21, 2023.
https://www.pogo.org/investigations/dhss-secret-reports-on-ice-detention.

5

We refer to all survey participants via pseudonyms to protect their identity.

6

Haug, Oliver. “A Trans Woman Has Been Detained in One of the Country’s Worst ICE Facilities for Two Years.” them.us. June 10, 2021.
https://www.them.us/story/trans-woman-detained-ice-facility-two-years.

7

Eunice Cho. “Unchecked Growth: Private Prison Corporations and Immigration Detention, Three Years Into the Biden Administration.” American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU), 2023.
https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/unchecked-growth-private-prison-corporations-and-immigration-detention-three-years-into-the-biden-administration

8

See, e.g., Wong, Tom K. “Do Family Separation and Detention Deter Immigration?” Center for American Progress (CAP), July 24, 2018.
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/family-separation-detention-deter-immigration/.

9

10
Ramon Mendos, Lucas et al. “State Sponsored Homophobia Global Legislation Overview Update.” ILGA World, December 2020. 25.
https://ilga.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/ILGA_World_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_report_global_legislation_overview_update_December_2020.pdf. See, e.g.,
Human Dignity Trust. “Map of Countries That Criminalise LGBT People.” Accessed April 23, 2024.
https://www.humandignitytrust.org/lgbt-the-law/map-of-criminalisation
11
Immigration Equality. “Country Conditions Materials.” Accessed April 23, 2024. https://immigrationequality.org/legal/legal-help/resources/country-conditions-index/
(collecting citations documenting violence, criminalization).

Human Dignity Trust, supra n. 10.

12

Id.

13

Republic of Uganda, Parliament of Uganda, Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023, Adopted May 26, 2023.
https://www.parliament.go.ug/sites/default/files/The%20Anti-Homosexuality%20Act%2C%202023.pdf; Budoo-Scholtz, Ashwanee. “Uganda’s President Signs
Repressive Anti-LGBT Law.” Human Rights Watch, May 30, 2023. https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/05/30/ugandas-president-signs-repressive-anti-lgbt-law.
14

15
Mersie, Ayenat, and Mukelwa Hlatshwayo. “Insight: Kenya Could Follow Uganda as East African Nations Wage War on LGBT Rights.” Reuters, June 27, 2023.
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/kenya-could-follow-uganda-east-african-nations-wage-war-lgbt-rights-2023-06-22/; Al Jazeera. “Ghana’s Parliament Passes AntiLGBTQ Bill,” February 28, 2024. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/28/ghanas-parliament-passes-anti-lgbtq-bill.
16
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. “Russia: UN Human Rights Chief Deplores Supreme Court’s Decision to Outlaw ‘LGBT Movement.’” November
30, 2023. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/11/russia-un-human-rights-chief-deplores-supreme-courts-decision-outlaw-lgbt; Litvinova, Dasha. “Russia’s
Supreme Court Effectively Outlaws LGBTQ+ Activism in a Landmark Ruling.” AP News, November 30, 2023.
https://apnews.com/article/russia-lgbtq-crackdown-extremist-supreme-court-1b8f4cd8708d1c6cf3486c5f27fd7354#:~:text=Russia’s%20Supreme%20Court%20
effectively%20outlaws%20LGBTQ%2B%20activism%20in%20a%20landmark%20ruling&text=TALLINN%2C%20Estonia%20(AP)%20%E2%80%94,in%20the%20
increasingly%20conservative%20country.
17
E.g., Immigration Equality. “Country Conditions Materials.” Accessed April 23, 2024.
https://immigrationequality.org/legal/legal-help/resources/country-conditions-index/ (collecting citations documenting violence, criminalization); Amnesty
International. “Americas: ‘No Safe Place’: Salvadorans, Guatemalans and Hondurans Seeking Asylum in Mexico Based on Their Sexual Orientation and/or Gender
Identity.” November 27, 2017. https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr01/7258/2017/en; Shaw, Ari, and Namrata Verhese. “LGBTQI+ Refugees and Asylum
Seekers A Review of Research and Data Needs.” UCLA School of Law Williams Institute, June 2022.
https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/LGBTQI-Refugee-Review-Jul-2022.pdf.

Immigration Equality, Country Conditions Materials, supra n. 11.

18

See Feliciano, Ivette. “LGBTQ Asylum Seekers Persecuted at Home and in U.S. Custody.” PBS, August 10, 2019.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/lgbtq-asylum-seekers-persecuted-at-home-and-in-u-s-custody) (“[O]ne night while doing outreach with sex workers in . . . San
Salvador, she was beaten and shot in the shoulder by a group of gang members. . . . Police detained but eventually released the men with no charges. Castro says
they knew she was the one who had complained, so they began to follow her and threaten her with death.”).
19

Immigration Equality, Country Conditions Materials, supra n. 11.

20

NO HUMAN B EING SHOULD B E HELD THERE | 47

21
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, 8 U.S.C. § 1158(a)(1) (“Any alien who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States (whether
or not at a designated port of arrival and including an alien who is brought to the United States after having been interdicted in international or United States waters),
irrespective of such alien’s status, may apply for asylum in accordance with this section or, where applicable, section 1225(b) of this title.”)
22
Neusner, Julia, Kizuka, Kennji, and Acer, Eleanor. “Human Rights Stain, Public Health Farce.” Human Rights First, December 15, 2022.
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/human-rights-stain-public-health-farce/. Neusner, Julia, Kizuka, Kennji. “Fatally Flawed: ‘Remain in Mexico’ Policy Should Never Be
Revived.” Human Rights First, September 13, 2022.
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/fatally-flawed-remain-in-mexico-policy-should-never-be-revived/.
23
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). “Circumvention of Lawful Pathways,”
88 Fed. Reg. 31314 (May 16, 2023). https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/05/16/2023-10146/circumvention-of-lawful-pathways;
24
Asencio, Christina. “Trapped, Preyed Upon, and Punished: One Year of the Biden Administration Asylum Ban.” Human Rights First, May 7, 2024.
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/trapped-preyed-upon-and-punished/.

“Arbitrary and Cruel: How U.S. Immigration Detention Violates the Convention against Torture and other International Obligations.” 2023.
https://www.cvt.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Arbitrary_and_Cruel_d5_FINAL.pdf.

25

26
Specifically, the United Nations Refugee Agency admonished that the detention of asylum seekers should be avoided and a “measure of last resort,” because
detention runs afoul of the fundamental rights to liberty and freedom of movement. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “Detention Guidelines:
Guidelines on the Applicable Criteria and Standards relating to the Detention of Asylum-Seekers and Alternatives to Detention.” (2012),
https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/publications/legal/505b10ee9/unhcr-detention-guidelines.html.

Bova, Gus. “A World Without Immigrant Prisons.” The Texas Observer, December 3, 2019. https://www.texasobserver.org/a-world-without-immigrant-prisons/.

27

NIJC. “A Better Way: Community-Based Programming as an Alternative to Immigrant Incarceration.” August 22, 2019.
https://immigrantjustice.org/research-items/report-better-way-community-based-programming-alternative-immigrant-incarceration. NIJC. “President Biden, It Is Past
Time to Protect Haitian Asylum Seekers.” September 20, 2021. https://immigrantjustice.org/staff/blog/president-biden-it-past-time-protect-haitian-asylum-seekers.
28

NIJC. “A Better Way: Community-Based Programming as an Alternative to Immigrant Incarceration,” supra n. 28.

29

NIJC & FWD.us. “Pushing Back Protection: How Offshoring and Externalization Imperil the Right to Asylum” August 3, 2021.
https://immigrantjustice.org/sites/default/files/content-type/research-item/documents/2021-11/Offshoring%20Asylum%20Report_Chapter4%20%281%29.pdf
(Chapter 4: Laying the Foundation Of U.S. Offshoring: From Angel Island to Guantánamo Bay).
30

31
Alexander, supra n.3. See also, American Immigration Council. “Immigration Detention in the United States by Agency.” January 2, 2020.
https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/immigration-detention-united-states-agency.
32
Explanatory Statement regarding H.R. 2882, Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024, 118th Cong., 2nd Sess., Congressional Record 170, No. 51 Book 11, at
H1812, https://www.congress.gov/118/crec/2024/03/22/170/51/CREC-2024-03-22-bk2.pdf.

ICE publishes monthly spreadsheets reporting detention data, available at https://www.ice.gov/detain/detention-management (last accessed April 2, 2024).

33

Ted Hesson, Mica Rosenberg, and Kristina Cooke. “President Biden Vowed to Reform Immigration Detention; Instead, Private Prisons Benefited.” Reuters, August 7,
2023. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-vowed-reform-immigration-detention-instead-private-prisons-benefited-2023-08-07/.
34

35
ICE. FY 2024 ICE Statistics. “Detention FY 2024 YTD, Alternatives to Detention FY 2024 YTD and Facilities FY 2024 YTD, Footnotes.” Accessed May 24, 2024 [hereinafter
2024 ICE Statistics] https://www.ice.gov/detain/detention-management.
36
CBP, TEDS, supra n. 2. Note that the 72-hour limit is codified with respect to unaccompanied children, but not adults and children traveling with their parents or
legal guardian. 8 U.S.C. § 1232(b)(3).
37
Alvarez, Priscilla. “Adult migrants are held in border facilities too long amid Biden administration policy changes, sources say.” CNN. July 18, 2023.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/18/politics/migrants-border-facilities-biden-policies/index.html.
38
DHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG). “Results of July 2023 unannounced Inspections of CBP holding facilities in the Rio Grande Valley area.” March 15, 2024.
https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2024-03/OIG-24-20-Mar24.pdf.
39
ACLU and ACLU Texas. “Letter to DHS Secretary Mayorkas Re: Unresolved Complaints of CBP Misconduct Require Immediate Attention and Accountability.” March 3,
2021. https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/document/2021_03_03_ACLU_Complaint_Letter.pdf; Human Rights Watch. “They Treat You Like You Are Worthless:
Internal DHS Reports of Abuses by U.S. Border Officials.” October 21, 2021.
https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/10/21/they-treat-you-you-are-worthless/internal-dhs-reports-abuses-us-border-officials.
40
Human Rights Watch. “In the Freezer: Abusive Conditions for Women and Children in U.S. Immigration Holding Cells.” February 28, 2018.
https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/02/28/freezer/abusive-conditions-women-and-children-us-immigration-holding-cells.
41
Human Rights First. “Biden Administration Detains Women Seeking Safety and Separates Them From Their Families.” December 2022.
https://humanrightsfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Final-Berks-Factsheet-12.1.2022_FINAL-1.pdf.
42
Gonzalez, Valerie. “Mother of 8-Year-Old Girl who Died in Border Patrol Custody Says Pleas for Hospital Care Were Denied.” AP News, May 19, 2023.
https://apnews.com/article/border-patrol-custody-death-harlingen-8da5429f39cb7ac0ff4c9184a42d8ba2.
43
Southern Border Communities Coalition. “BREAKING: Border Advocates File Complaint Alleging CBP Has Violated Custody Standards, Putting Lives at Risk in the
California Corridor Between Border Walls.” May 13, 2023.
https://www.southernborder.org/border_advocates_file_complaint_alleging_cbp_has_violated_custody_standards_putting_lives_at_risk_in_the_california_corridor_
between_border_walls; Center for Gender and Refugee Studies. “CBP Violations of Custody Standards and Human Rights of Individuals Detained in Open-Air
Detention Sites in the San Diego Sector Require Immediate Attention to Save Lives.” December 11, 2023.
https://cgrs.uclawsf.edu/legal-document/cbp-violations-custody-standards-and-human-rights-individuals-detained-open-air.
44
Moore, John. “I’m a Photojournalist. Why Is the Administration Banning Me from Border Facilities?” The Washington Post, March 22, 2021.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/03/22/journalists-banned-border-facilities-migrants/.

American Immigration Council. “Immigration Detention in the United States by Agency,” supra n. 31.

45

United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. General Allegation, 132nd session (29 January – 2 February 2024), United States of
America. Accessed June 11, 2024. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/disappearances/allegations/132-USA_Annex-I_0.pdf. Haitian Bridge
Alliance, et al. “Short-Term Disappearances of Migrants and Asylum Seekers in the United States,” n.d. Accessed April 1, 2024.
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/ced/cfis/short-term-disap/submission-short-term-ED-CED-WGEID-cso-usmigrants-en.pdf.
46

47
Dreisbach, Tom. “Government’s Own Experts Found ‘barbaric’ and ‘Negligent’ Conditions in ICE Detention.” NPR, August 16, 2023.
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/16/1190767610/ice-detention-immigration-government-inspectors-barbaric-negligent-conditions.
48
Eunice Cho. “Unchecked Growth: Private Prison Corporations and Immigration Detention, Three Years Into the Biden Administration.” ACLU, August 7, 2023. https://
www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/unchecked-growth-private-prison-corporations-and-immigration-detention-three-years-into-the-biden-administration.

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Human Rights First. “Basics of Asylum.” November 29, 2023. https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/basics-of-asylum/.

49

Long, Clara. “‘They Treat You Like You Are Worthless.’” Human Rights Watch, March 28, 2023.
https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/10/21/they-treat-you-you-are-worthless/internal-dhs-reports-abuses-us-border-officials.
50

51
NIJC. “Explainer: Biden Administration Plans for Rapid Deportation of Asylum Seekers Detained at the Border.” January 26, 2023.
https://immigrantjustice.org/staff/blog/explainer-biden-administration-plans-rapid-deportation-asylum-seekers-detained-border.

United Nations Office of the High Commissioner. “The Principle of Non-Refoulement under International Human Rights Law.” Accessed May 13, 2024. https://
www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Issues/Migration/GlobalCompactMigration/ThePrincipleNon-RefoulementUnderInternationalHumanRightsLaw.
pdf.
52

ICE, 2024 ICE Statistics, supra n. 35.

53

Id.

54

Gruberg, “ICE’s Rejection of Its Own Rules,” supra n. 5.

55

Immigration Equality et al. Re: The Abuse of Transgender and HIV-Positive People in Detention, supra n. 5. Santa Fe Dreamers Project et al., to ICE Interim
Field Office Director Dianne Witte. RE: Detention Conditions Impacting the Health and Safety of LGBTQI/HIV+ Immigrants Detained at the Winn Correctional
Center in Winnfield, LA. March 26, 2020.
https://www.washingtonblade.com/content/files/2020/03/March262020WinnConditionsLetter.pdf; ACLU of New Mexico. “Immigrant Rights Advocates Demand
Investigation and Meeting with ICE and Elected Officials to Address Mistreatment of Gay Men and Transgender Women in Otero County Processing Center.”
March 22, 2019. https://www.aclu-nm.org/en/press-releases/immigrant-rights-advocates-demand-investigation-and-meeting-ice-and-elected-officials; Freddy
Martinez
and
Nick
Schwellenbach.
“DHS’s
Secret
Reports
on
ICE
Detention.”
POGO,
August
21,
2023.
https://www.pogo.org/investigations/dhss-secret-reports-on-ice-detention. (In 2023, POGO obtained CRCL records that document ICE’s failure to respond to or
prevent sexual assault against detained people, including LGBTQ individuals); American Immigration Council, National Immigration Project, and Rocky Mountain
Immigrant Advocacy Network to Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia et al, April 9, 2024, Complaint Underscoring Why People Who Are Transgender and Nonbinary
Should Not Be Detained in Civil Immigration Detention. https://nipnlg.org/sites/default/files/2024-04/CRCL_complaint-transgender-care.pdf.
57
American Immigration Council, National Immigration Project, and Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network to Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia et al, April 9,
2024, Complaint Underscoring Why People Who Are Transgender and Nonbinary Should Not Be Detained in Civil Immigration Detention. April 9, 2024.
https://nipnlg.org/sites/default/files/2024-04/CRCL_complaint-transgender-care.pdf.
56

ICE. Review of the Use of Segregation for ICE detainees. 11065.1. 2013. https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/segregation_directive.pdf; Thomas
Homan. “Further Guidance Regarding the Care of Transgender Detainees” [hereinafter “Trans Care Memo”]. ICE, June 19, 2015.
https://www.ice.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Document/2015/TransgenderCareMemorandum.pdf.

58

Woodman, Spencer et al. “Thousands of Immigrants Suffer In US Solitary Confinement.” ICIJ, May 21, 2019.
https://www.icij.org/investigations/solitary-voices/thousands-of-immigrants-suffer-in-us-solitary-confinement.
59

Id.

60

Physicians for Human Rights, HIRC, and PEELER Immigration Lab. “‘Endless Nightmare’ Torture and Inhuman Treatment in Solitary Confinement in U.S.
Immigration Detention.” Physicians for Human Rights, February 2024.
https://phr.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/PHR-REPORT-ICE-Solitary-Confinement-2024.pdf; See also Transgender Law Center et al. to Dr. Stewart Smith
Assistant Director for ICE Health Service Corp. et al. RE : Failure to Provide Adequate Medical and Mental Health Care to LGBTQ People and People Living with
HIV in Immigration Detention Facilities. September 25, 2019.
http://transgenderlawcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Complaint-on-LGBTQ-PLHIV-DHS.pdf; ACLU of New Mexico “Immigrant Rights Advocates
Demand Investigation,” supra n. 56; Santa Fe Dreamers Project et al., to ICE Interim Field Office Director Dianne Witte. RE: Detention Conditions Impacting the
Health and Safety of LGBTQI/HIV+ Immigrants Detained at the Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, LA, supra n. 56.
61

The vast majority of LGBTQ immigrants are not housed in dedicated pods and are housed within the general population (although in some facilities LGBTQ
people are informally placed together).
62

63Human Rights Watch, “Do You See How Much I’m Suffering Here,” supra n. 5; Rivas, Jorge. “How Trans ICE Detainees Ended Up in a Men’s Detention Center in
the Middle of New Mexico.” Splinter, June 5, 2017. https://www.splinter.com/how-trans-ice-detainees-ended-up-in-a-men-s-detention-c-1795818417; ACLU et al.
to CRCL Senior Policy Advisor Moreen Murphy and CRCL Senior Policy Advisor Danielle Scott. RE: Detention Conditions Impacting the Safety and Well-Being of
Immigrants in the Cibola County Correctional Center in Milan, New Mexico. April 16, 2019.
https://www.aclu-nm.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/2019_04_15_nm_stakeholders_letter_to_crcl_re_cibola_county_correctional_center.pdf; Critchfield,
Hannah. “Migrants Inside ICE’s Only Transgender Unit Decry Conditions.” Phoenix New Times, July 12, 2019.
https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/transgender-migrants-decry-conditions-new-mexico-ice-detention-11325981; Moore, Robert. “Transgender Woman
Migrant Who Had Been in ICE Custody Dies after Falling Ill.” The Washington Post, June 2, 2019.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/transgender-woman-migrant-who-had-been-in-ice-custody-dies-after-falling-ill/2019/06/02/
d194528a-85a6-11e9-98c1-e945ae5db8fb_story.html; Levin, Sam. “Trans Woman Who Died after Illness in US Custody Had Asked to Be Deported, Family Says.”
The Guardian, June 12, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/12/trans-woman-death-us-custody-ice-deportation; Mica Rosenberg and Ted
Hesson. “Exclusive: Serious Health Care Lapses Found in U.S. Detention Center Housing Transgender Migrants.” Reuters, March 2, 2020.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-transgender-exclusive/exclusiveserious-health-care-lapses-found-in-u-s-detention-center-housingtransgender-migrants-idUSKBN20P1OT/.

Garcia, Sandra. “Independent Autopsy of Transgender Asylum Seeker Who Died in ICE Custody Shows Signs of Abuse.” The New York Times, November 27,
2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/27/us/trans-woman-roxsana-hernandez-ice-autopsy.html
64

See American Immigration Council, Immigrant Justice Idaho, and Immigration Equality to ICE Associate Director for Office of Professional Responsibility et al.
RE: Racial Discrimination, Excessive Use of Force at the Denver Contract Detention Facility. March 24, 2022.
https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/sites/default/files/research/complaint_against_ice_racial_discrimination_excessive_force_colorado.pdf; Rocky
Mountain Immigration Advocacy Network, National Immigration Project, and American Immigration Council to Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia et al.Complaint
Detailing Abusive Overuse of Solitary Confinement and Mistreatment That Disproportionally Impacts Persons with Disabilities at the Aurora Contract Detention
Facility. July 13, 2023. https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/sites/default/files/research/misuse_of_solitary_confinement_in_colorado_immigration_
detention_center_complaint.pdf; Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Project, National Immigration Project, American Immigration Council. Complaint
Underscoring Why People Who Are Transgender and Nonbinary Should Not Be Detained in Civil Immigration Detention. April 9, 2024.
https://nipnlg.org/sites/default/files/2024-04/CRCL_complaint-transgender-care.pdf; American Immigration Council and ACLU to ICE Health Service Corps
Assistant Director Stewart D. Smith et al. RE: SUPPLEMENT – Failure to Provide Adequate Medical and Mental Health Care to Individuals Detained in the Denver
Contract Detention Facility. June 11, 2019. https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/sites/default/files/general_litigation/complaint_supplement_failure_to_
provide_adequate_medical_and_mental_health_care.pdf
65

Homan, Trans Care Memo. supra n. 58.

66

See Rosenberg, “Exclusive: Serious Health Care Lapses Found in U.S. Detention Center Housing Transgender Migrants,” supra n. 64.

67

Toomer, Lindsey. “Trans Woman Detained in Aurora ICE Facility for 2 Years Struggles to Get Court Date.” Colorado Newsline, March 19, 2024.
https://coloradonewsline.com/2024/03/19/trans-woman-aurora-ice-court-date/.
68

Franzblau, Jesse. “Harassment, Pervasive Fear, and Transphobic Abuse: Trans Woman Requests Civil Rights Investigation into Civil Rights Violations at the Pine
Prairie ICE Detention Center.”NIJC, July 27, 2023. https://immigrantjustice.org/staff/blog/harassment-pervasive-fear-and-transphobic-abuse-trans-woman-re
quests-civil-rights.
69

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70
Tatiana Flowers. “Racial discrimination, excessive force and retaliation alleged at ICE detention center in Aurora.” The Colorado Sun, April 14, 2022.
https://coloradosun.com/2022/04/14/aurora-detention-center/.
71
Franzblau, Jesse. “Harassment, Pervasive Fear, and Transphobic Abuse: Trans Woman Requests Civil Rights Investigation into Civil Rights Violations at the Pine
Prairie ICE Detention Center.” NIJC (July 27, 2023).
https://immigrantjustice.org/staff/blog/harassment-pervasive-fear-and-transphobic-abuse-trans-woman-requests-civil-rights.
72
See, e.g., Aleaziz, Hamed. “A Secret Memo Revealed How A Transgender Immigrant Bleeding From Her Rectum Waited 13 Days For Care While Jailed By ICE.”
BuzzFeed News, March 4, 2020. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/hamedaleaziz/transgender-immigrant-detainees-medical-care-memo; see also Oztaskin,
Murat. “The Harrowing, Two-Year Detention of a Transgender Asylum Seeker.” The New Yorker, October 31, 2019.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-harrowing-two-year-detention-of-a-transgender-asylum-seeker; Gomez, Laura. “Migrants Held in ICE’s Only
Transgender Unit Plead for Help, Investigation in Letter.” AZ Mirror, July 9, 2019.
https://azmirror.com/2019/07/09/migrants-held-in-ices-only-transgender-unit-plea-for-help-investigation-in-letter; Gendelman, “I’m a Prisoner Here,”supra n.4,
at 15-17; Rosenberg, “Exclusive: Serious Health Care Lapses Found in U.S. Detention Center Housing Transgender Migrants.” supra n. 63; Santa Fe Dreamers
Project et al., to ICE Interim Field Office Director Dianne Witte. RE: Detention Conditions Impacting the Health and Safety of LGBTQI/HIV+ Immigrants Detained
at the Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, LA, supra n. 56 (letter from advocacy organizations detailing medical neglect); Moore. “Transgender Woman
Migrant Who Had Been in ICE Custody Dies after Falling Ill,” supra n. 64.

Transgender Law Center et al., “Failure to Provide Adequate Medical and Mental Health Care,” supra n. 61.

73

Immigration Equality to Assistant Director for ICE Health Services Corps Dr. Stewart D. Smith et a., Re: HIV-Positive Asylum Seekers Who Receive Grossly
Negligent Medical Care in Immigration Detention and Are Particularly Vulnerable to COVID-19 Must Be Released Immediately. March 23, 2020.
https://immigrationequality.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Complaint-to-Office-of-Civil-Rights-and-Civil-Liberties-Re-HIV-Care-in-Detention-Facilities.pdf.
74

75
Fitzsimons, Tim. “Democratic Lawmakers Call on ICE to Release Transgender Migrants.” NBC News, January 16, 2016.
https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/democratic-lawmakers-call-ice-release-transgender-migrants-n1116621; Rep. Mike Quigley, et al. to Chad Wolf,
Acting Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, January 14, 2020
https://quigley.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/quigley-evo.house.gov/files/01.14.20%20ICE%20Letter.pdf; see also Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Baldwin to
Kevin McAleenan, Acting Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, October 15, 2019. https://www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2019.10.15%20
Letter%20to%20DHS%20ICE%20and%20CPB%20regarding%20transgender%20migrants%20and%20asylum%20seekers.pdf; Rep. Mike Quigley, et al. to Sec.
Mayorkas, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, July 9, 2021. https://quigley.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/quigley-evo.house.gov/files/07.09.21.%20Rep.%20
Quigley%20Letter%20on%20Detention%20of%20Transgender%20Immigrants.pdf.
76
In some instances, participants’ narrative responses were inconsistent with check box answers on the questionnaire. For example, a participant had initially
indicated that they had requested medical care and had received it in custody. However, they later described in detail a time when they had requested medical
care, but had not received it. In such instances, authors have relied upon the participant’s detailed narrative response to ensure the accuracy of the data.
77
This list is incomplete because some participants did not identify the name of the specific facility or did not want the facility named in the report over
confidentiality concerns. Some facilities are no longer ICE jails, but were at the time participants were detained.
78
Two participants witnessed officers physically assault other detained people, although they did not know the sexual orientation or gender identity of the
individuals who were assaulted.
79
“LGBTI Persons in Immigration Detention.” International Detention Coalition, June 2016 at 11.
https://www.refworld.org/reference/themreport/idc/2016/en/112157.
80
For example, in 2023, NIJC filed a complaint on behalf of Vicky, a trans woman who was detained at Pine Prairie Correctional Center in Louisiana. Vicky
was housed in male solitary confinement housing. The complaint states that Vicky’s “isolation and inability to be herself only worsen[ed] her mental health
struggles, including anxiety and depression. Her vulnerability in detention has impacted her mental health so significantly that she now takes two different
anxiety medications: one in the morning and two at night.” NIJC to Katherine Culliton-Gonzalez, CRCL, July 7, 2023, RE: Request for Investigation into Violations
of Transgender Care Standards. https://immigrantjustice.org/sites/default/files/content-type/commentary-item/documents/2024-03/CRCL-complaint-letter_ICEabuse-Pine-Prairie_July2023-1.pdf.

International Detention Coalition, “LGBTI Persons in Immigration Detention,” supra n. 79.

81

Another 8 participants reported witnessing verbal abuse directed towards other detained people.

82

For example, in 2020, a group of organizations submitted a letter to ICE, OIG, and CRCL documenting severe harassment of LGBTQ people at the Winn
Correctional Center. The abuses include a detained man threatening a trans woman with inserting a stick into her anus to “make her a man,” incidences of Winn
staff refusing to use correct pronouns for trans women, an officer threatening a trans woman with physical harm, and officers ordering trans women “to walk
like men, not faggots.” Santa Fe Dreamers Project et al., “RE: Detention Conditions Impacting the Health and Safety of LGBTQI/HIV+ Immigrants Detained at the
Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, LA,” supra n. 56, at 6, 9.
83

Washington Office of Latin America. “Taken Away: U.S. Border Agents’ Widespread Confiscation of Migrants’ Valuable Personal Items.” WOLA, August 26, 2022.
https://www.wola.org/2022/08/taken-away-u-s-border-agents-widespread-confiscation-of-migrants-valuable-personal-items/; Schramm, Noah. “Border Patrol’s
Abusive Practice of Taking Migrants’ Property Needs to End.” ACLU, February 13, 2024.
https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/border-patrols-abusive-practice-of-taking-migrants-property-needs-to-end.

84

85
Miroff, Nick. “Medical Provider Vying for Border Contract Faces Scrutiny after Girl’s Death.” Washington Post, November 19, 2023.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2023/11/19/border-loyal-source-medical-care-migrants/.
86
Under the Trump administration, six children, most of them Indigenous, died either while in CBP custody or shortly after their release because they never
received treatment while in detention. Their ages ranged from 2 to 16 years old. Moore, Robert. “Six Children Died in Border Patrol Care. Democrats in Congress
Want to Know Why.” ProPublica, March 2, 2020.
https://www.propublica.org/article/six-children-died-in-border-patrol-care-democrats-in-congress-want-to-know-why. Substandard or deadly medical neglect
in CBP custody persists today. In May 2023, 8 year old Anadith Danay Reyes Alvarez died in CBP custody after staff refused her family’s pleas that she be taken
to the hospital multiple times, and staff downplayed or ignored the girl’s pain. An independent federal court monitor found Anadith’s death a “preventable
tragedy” that raised “profound concerns” about CBP’s ability to care for those in its custody. Montoya-Galvez, Camilo. “Official Concedes 8-Year-Old Who Died in
U.S. Custody Could Have Been Saved as Devastated Family Recalls Final Days.” CBS News, July 22, 2023.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anadith-danay-reyes-alvarez-8-year-old-migrant-died-border-patrol-custody-family; Montoya-Galvez, Camilo. “Death of Migrant
Girl Was a ‘Preventable Tragedy’ That Raises ‘Profound Concerns’ about U.S. Border Process, Monitor Says.” CBS News, July 19, 2023.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/8-year-old-migrant-girl-died-us-custody-anadith-danay-reyes-alvarez-report/.
87
Owen, Quinn. “At Least 6 Immigrants Died after ‘inadequate’ Care in US Custody since 2017: Report.” ABC News, September 26, 2020.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/immigrants-died-inadequate-care-us-custody-2017-report/story?id=73250958; Herrera, Jack. “Why Are Trans Women Dying in ICE
Detention?” Pacific Standard, June 4, 2019. https://psmag.com/social-justice/why-are-trans-women-dying-in-ice-detention; NIJC, Human Rights Watch, ACLU,
and Detention Watch Network. “Code Red. The Fatal Consequences of Dangerously Substandard Medical Care in Immigration Detention,” June 2018, at 15.
https://immigrantjustice.org/sites/default/files/content-type/research-item/documents/2018-06/Code%20Red-%20detention%20deaths%20report%20June%20
2018.pdf. (“independent medical experts who agreed to review cases for this report analyzed the 15 ICE Detainee Death Reviews posted by ICE on its website.
. . found evidence of substandard care in nearly all of the cases, and concluded that medical lapses likely led or contributed to eight of the deaths.”). Harms
include unreasonable delays in providing care, poor practitioner and nursing care, and botched emergency responses at 45-51.
88
Grassini, Molly, et al. “Characteristics of Deaths Among Individuals in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention Facilities, 2011-2018.” JAMA
Network Open, July 7, 2021. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2781682.

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89
Becerra, Xavier, Cal. Att’y Gen. “Immigration Detention in California.” Office of the Att’y Gen, Cal. Dep’t of Justice, February 2019, at 124.
https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/publications/immigration-detention-2019.pdf.
90
Hesson, Ted. “Exclusive: Biden Officials Kept Immigration Jails Despite Internal Cost Concerns.” Reuters, September 27, 2023.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-officials-kept-immigration-jails-despite-internal-cost-concerns-2023-09-27/
91
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal. “Jayapal, Stansbury Call for Transparency on Conditions at Immigration Detention Centers - Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal.”
February 16, 2024. https://jayapal.house.gov/2024/02/16/jayapal-stansbury-call-for-transparency-on-conditions-at-immigration-detention-centers/.
92
Coleman, E. et al. “Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, Version 8.” International Journal of Transgender Health 23, no. S1
(September 15, 2022). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/26895269.2022.2100644?needAccess=true.
93According to ICE’s 2011 Performance-Based National Detention Standards, “Transgender detainees who were already receiving hormone therapy when taken into
ICE custody shall have continued access. All transgender detainees shall have access to mental health care, and other transgender-related health care and medication
based on medical need. Treatment shall follow accepted guidelines regarding medically necessary transition-related care.” ICE, Performance-Based National
Detention Standards 2011, Revised December 2016 at 273-274 [hereinafter 2011 PBNDS].
https://www.ice.gov/doclib/detention-standards/2011/pbnds2011r2016.pdf. Similarly, the Transgender Care Memorandum provides in the contract modification
to ICE detention facilities that “transgender detainees who were already receiving hormone therapy when taken into ICE custody shall have continued access to
hormone therapy; those who have not yet begun treatment will be assessed and treated, if deemed medically necessary and safe in the context of their other medical
conditions. All transgender detainees shall have access to mental health care, and other transgender-related health care and medication based on medical need.”
Homan, Trans Care Memo, supra n. 58, at 10. Notably, the 2019 National Detention Standards are more limited, only stating that “The facility will notify ICE/ERO of
any self-identified transgender detainees and coordinate care with ICE/ERO based on medical needs.” ICE, National Detention Standards For Non-Dedicated Facilities,
Revised 2019, at 117 [hereinafter 2019 NDS] https://www.ice.gov/doclib/detention-standards/2019/nds2019.pdf. However, many ICE facilities do not have the
contract modification in place. See Appendix A. And the ones that do, like the Denver Contract Detention Facility, still struggle to provide adequate care.
94Physicians for Human Rights, HIRC, and PEELER Immigration Lab. “‘Endless Nightmare’ Torture and Inhuman Treatment in Solitary Confinement in U.S. Immigration
Detention,” supra n. 61; New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. “Still Detained and Denied - The Health Crisis in Immigration Detention Continues.” NYLPI, April
2020. https://nylpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/NYLPI-report-Detained-Denied.pdf; Human Rights Watch, “Do You See How Much I’m Suffering Here,” supra n. 5;
NIJC and Physicians for Human Rights. “Invisible in Isolation. The Use of Segregation and Solitary Confinement in Immigration Detention.” Immigrant Justice Center,
September 2012. https://immigrantjustice.org/sites/immigrantjustice.org/files/Invisible%20in%20Isolation-The%20Use%20of%20Segregation%20and%20Solitary%20
Confinement%20in%20Immigration%20Detention.September%202012_7.pdf.; Chloe Reichel, “How detention centers affect the health of immigrant children: A
research roundup,” The Journalist’s Resource, July 22, 2019, https://journalistsresource.org/politics-and-government/health-effects-immigration-detention-children.
(while there is slim reporting on mental healthcare provided to those in CBP custody, there are several reports that focus on the particular impact of CBP custody on
the mental health of children and mothers, lending to how mental health may be impacted across demographics).
95
CRCL Officer Cameron P. Quinn and Office of General Counsel Attorney Advisor Marc Pachon to ICE Deputy Director and Senior Official Performing the Duties of the
Director Ronald Vitiello and ICE Executive Deputy Principal Legal Advisory Michael P. Davis, March 20, 2019, ICE Health Service Corps (IHSC) Medical/Mental Health
Care and Oversight, https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6575024-ICE-Whistleblower-Report.html.
96
See Marchi, Mattia et al. “Post-traumatic stress disorder among LGBTQ people: a systematic review and meta-analysis.” Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences 32
e: 44, (July 11, 2023). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10387489/.
97Physicians for Human Rights, HIRC, and PEELER Immigration Lab. “‘Endless Nightmare’ Torture and Inhuman Treatment in Solitary Confinement in U.S. Immigration
Detention,” supra n. 61, at 6 (citing The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, Rule 44 (United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime,
2015), Retrieved from https://www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform/Nelson_Mandela_Rules-E-ebook.pdf).
98
Physicians for Human Rights, HIRC, and PEELER Immigration Lab. “‘Endless Nightmare’ Torture and Inhuman Treatment,” supra n. 61, at 6 (citing OIG, ICE Needs to
Improve its Oversight of Segregation Use in Detention Facilities, (October 13, 2021),
https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2021-10/OIG-22-01-Oct21.pdf).
99 ICE. “11065.1: Review of the Use of Segregation for ICE Detainees.” September 4, 2013.
https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/segregation_directive.pdf. (3.3. “Detainees with special vulnerabilities include those who are known to be
suffering from mental illness or serious medical illness; who have a disability or are elderly, pregnant, or nursing; who would be susceptible to harm in general
population due in part to their sexual orientation or gender identity; or who have been victims - in or out of ICE custody- of sexual assault, torture, trafficking, or
abuse.”).

Stillman, Sarah. “When Deportation Is a Death Sentence.” The New Yorker, January 8, 2018.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/15/when-deportation-is-a-death-sentence.

100

101

TRACImmigration. “Too Few Immigration Attorneys: Average Representation Rates Fall from 65% To 30%,” January 24, 2024. https://trac.syr.edu/reports/736/.

Eagly, Ingrid, and Steven Shafer. “Access to Counsel in Immigration Court.” American Immigration Council, September 28, 2016 at 19.
https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/sites/default/files/research/access_to_counsel_in_immigration_court.pdf.

102

NIJC. “What Kind of Miracle....The Systemic Violation of Immigrants’ Right to Counsel at the Cibola County Correctional Center.” November 2017.
https://immigrantjustice.org/sites/default/files/content-type/research-item/documents/2017-11/NIJC-Cibola-report-November2017.pdf (“An NIJC survey of legal
service providers reveals that New Mexico and Texas immigration attorneys, at their maximum capacity, are only able to represent approximately 42 detained
individuals at the Cibola prison at any given time — six percent of the jail’s population in April 2017.” at 3).
103

See, e.g., University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School Gittis Legal Clinics et al. to CRCL Officer Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, OIG Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari,
and Acting Immigration Detention Ombudsman David Gersten, June 20, 2023, RE: Complaint Regarding Telephone Access and Access to Counsel at the Pike County
Correctional Facility, https://www.law.upenn.edu/live/files/12627-complaint-regarding-telephone-access-and-access-to (complaint outlining “pattern of systemic
failures of Pike County staff, and their ICE counterparts, to comply with the PBNDS as well as policies outlined in the Pike County Facility Handbook, including: (1)
failure to provide adequate procedure to schedule legal calls with clients in detention, (2) failure to provide functioning telephones, (3) failure to provide a private and
confidential setting for legal calls, (4) improper monitoring of legal calls, (5) failure to provide individuals in detention with equitable access to telephone
communication, (6) improperly charging individuals in detention for legal calls, and (7) failure to provide the required time allotment for legal calls.”).
104

A 2019 California review of ICE detention facilities found that in one facility, immigration attorneys “must compete for a small number of attorney visit rooms
with criminal defense counsel,” and immigration detainees in California “have little to no access to private areas for legal calls” “With limited exceptions, calls are
monitored and recorded and — particularly in county facilities — they can be prohibitively expensive.” Detained people in solitary have telephone access “only during
their one or two hours of ‘day room time,’ which is not necessarily a set schedule and may occur outside of business hours.” Particularly difficult to find counsel:
“general scarcity of free and low cost legal services for detained immigrants, especially away from urban centers. Many detention facilities, including Imperial, are
in such remote locations that legal services organizations are unable to provide consistent legal orientation programs or offer representation to those detained.”
Becerra. “Immigration Detention in California,” supra n. 89, at 126-127.
105

NIJC. “The Biden Administration Continues to Thwart Access to Counsel for People Seeking Asylum.” June 20, 2023.
https://immigrantjustice.org/staff/blog/obstructed-legal-access-june-2023-update.
106

White House, Executive Order on Reforming Our Incarceration System to Eliminate the Use of Privately Operated Criminal Detention Facilities (Jan. 26, 2021),
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/26/executive-order-reforming-our-incarceration-system-to-eliminate-the-use-of-privatelyoperated-criminal-detention-facilities/.
107

108

Hesson, “Exclusive: Biden Officials Kept Immigration Jails Despite Internal Cost Concerns,” supra n. 92.

109

White House, Executive Order on Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through The Federal Government (Feb. 16, 2021),

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https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/02/16/executive-order-on-further-advancing-racial-equity-and-support-for-underservedcommunities-through-the-federal-government/.
White House, Memorandum on Advancing the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Persons Around the World (Feb. 4, 2021),
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/02/04/memorandum-advancing-the-human-rights-of-lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-queerand-intersex-persons-around-the-world/.

110

H.R.2760: Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act. https://www.congress.gov/118/bills/hr2760/BILLS-118hr2760ih.pdf; S.1208: Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act.
https://www.congress.gov/118/bills/s1208/BILLS-118s1208is.pdf.

111

8 USC § 1182(d)(5) (providing broadly the authority to parole individuals on a case-by-case basis for humanitarian reasons or if otherwise in the public interest)

112
113

Gendelman, “‘I’m a Prisoner Here’: Biden Administration Policies Lock Up Asylum Seekers,” supra n. 4 at 22.

NIJC. “New Immigration Enforcement Guidelines Put Too Much Power in Hands of an Abusive Agency and Betray U.S. Obligations to Protect Asylum Seekers,”
September 30, 2021. https://immigrantjustice.org/press-releases/new-immigration-enforcement-guidelines-put-too-much-power-hands-abusive-agency-and.

114

Flowers, Tatiana. “Immigration Rights Groups Allege Abuse, Harassment of Transgender Detainees at Aurora ICE Facility.” The Colorado Sun, April 11, 2024.
Accessed May 22, 2024. https://coloradosun.com/2024/04/11/aurora-contract-detention-facility/.

115

OIG, ICE’s Inspections and Monitoring of Detention Facilities Do Not Lead to Sustained Compliance or Systemic Improvements (June 26, 2018).
www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2018-06/OIG-18-67-Jun18.pdf; OIG, ICE Does Not Fully Use Contracting Tools to Hold Detention Facility Contractors
Accountable for Failing to Meet Performance Standards (Jan. 29, 2019). www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2019-02/OIG-19-18-Jan19.pdf; U.S. Government
Accountability Office (GAO), Immigration Detention: ICE Can Improve Oversight and Management (Jan. 2023), www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-106350.pdf.

116

NIJC. “Beyond Repair: ICE’s Abusive Detention Inspection and Oversight System.” November 2023.
https://immigrantjustice.org/sites/default/files/content-type/research-item/documents/2023-11/NIJC-Policy-brief_ICE-detention-inspections_November2023.pdf;
Gupta, Nayna, et. al., “Roadmap To Dismantle The U.S. Immigration Detention System.” NIJC. July 28, 2021,
https://immigrantjustice.org/research-items/white-paper-roadmap-dismantle-us-immigration-detention-system.

117

NIJC. “‘The Expansion and Troubling Use of ICE Detention.’” September 26, 2019. https://immigrantjustice.org/sites/default/files/uploaded-files/no-contenttype/
2019-09/HJC_Hearing_Detention_Expansion_Testimony_Heidi-Altman_2019-09-26.pdf.

118

119

ICE. “ICE Detention Standards,” August 8, 2023. https://www.ice.gov/factsheets/ice-detention-standards.

Saadi, Altaf et al. “Understanding US Immigration Detention: Reaffirming Rights and Addressing Social-Structural Determinants of Health.” Health and Human
Rights Journal 22, no. 1 (June 2020): 187–97. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7348446/.

120

121

OIG. “ICE’s Inspections and Monitoring of Detention Facilities Do Not Lead to Sustained Compliance or Systemic Improvements,” supra n. 116.

According to ICE’s 2024 Statistics, there are two different versions of the 2011 PBNDS: PBNDS 2011 – 2016 Revised and PBNDS 2011-2013 Errata. The 2011-2016
Revised standards are in place in 43 facilities. The 2011-2013 Errata standards are in place in 2 facilities. ICE, 2024 ICE Statistics, supra n. 35.

122

ICE, 2000 National Detention Standards for Non-Dedicated Facilities, September 2000. [hereinafter 2000 NDS].
https://www.ice.gov/detain/detention-manage-ment/2000. (Detainee Classification System); ICE, 2008 Operations Manual ICE Performance-Based National Detention
Standards, December 2, 2008. [hereinafter 2008 PBNDS]. https://www.ice.gov/detain/detention-management/2008. (Classification System); ICE, 2011 PBNDS, supra n.
93, at 60, 70; ICE, 2019 NDS, supra n. 93, at 21.

123

124

ICE, 2011 PBNDS, supra n. 93, at 61, 70; ICE, 2019 NDS, supra n. 93, at 21, 22.

125

ICE, 2008 PBNDS (Classification System), supra n. 123, at 18; ICE, 2000 NDS (Detainee Classification System), supra n. 123.

ICE, 2008 PBNDS (Sexual Abuse and Assault Prevention and Intervention), supra n. 123, at 2-3; ICE, 2011 PBNDS, supra n. 93, at 127; ICE, 2019 NDS, supra n. 93 at
69.

126

ICE, 2011 PBNDS, supra n. 93, at 135; ICE, 2019 NDS, supra n. 93 at 78; PBNDS 2011-2013 Errata does not have explicit language recognizing LGBTQ people as an
at-risk group for sexual victimization. In this aspect, PBNDS 2011-2013 Errata is more similar to 2008 PBNDS.

127

128

ICE, 2000 NDS (Disciplinary Policy), supra n. 123.

129

Homan, Trans Care Memo. supra n. 58, at 2.

130

Homan, Trans Care Memo. supra n. 58.

ICE, 2000 NDS (Disciplinary Policy), supra n. 123, at 2; ICE, 2008 PBNDS (Disciplinary System), supra n. 123, at 3; ICE, 2011 PBNDS, supra n. 93, at 217; ICE, 2019 NDS,
supra n. 93, at 95.

131

132

Id.

ICE, 2000 NDS (Detainee Grievance Procedures), supra n. 123; ICE, 2008 PBNDS (Grievance System), supra n. 123; ICE, 2011 PBNDS, supra n. 93, at 414; ICE, 2019
NDS, supra n. 93, at
182.

133

ICE, 2008 PBNDS (Sexual Abuse and Assault Prevention and Interventionat), supra n. 123, at 16 (defining “Detainee-on-Detainee Sexual Abuse/Assault: One or
more detainees engaging in, or attempting to engage in a sexual act with another detainee or the use of threats, intimidation, inappropriate touching or other actions
and/or communications by one or more detainees aimed at coercing and/or pressuring another detainee to engage in a sexual act,” and “Staff Sexual Misconduct is:
Sexual behavior between a staff member and detainee which can include, but is not limited to indecent, profane or abusive language or gestures and inappropriate
visual surveillance of detainees.”); ICE, 2011 PBNDS, supra n. 93, at 130-131, (stating that “threats, intimidation, or other actions or communications by one or more
detainees [or staff] aimed at coercing or pressuring another detainee to engage in a sexual act” constitute sexual abuse or assault); ICE, 2019 NDS, supra n. 93, at
71-72 (stating that “Threats, intimidation, or other actions or communications by one or more detainees [or staff] aimed at coercing or pressuring another detainee to
engage in a sexual act” constitute acts of sexual abuse or assault).

134

135

ICE, 2008 PBNDS (Medical Care), supra n. 123, at 7; ICE, 2011 PBNDS, supra n. 93, at 263; ICE, 2019 NDS, supra n. 93, at 118.

136

ICE, 2000 NDS (Medical Care), supra n. 123, at 9.

137

ICE, 2011 PBNDS, supra n. 93, at 135-136; ICE, 2019 NDS, supra n. 93, at 78-79.

ICE, 2000 NDS (Detention Files), supra n. 123, at 2; ICE, 2008 PBNDS (Detention Files), supra n. 123, at 2, 4-5; ICE, 2011 PBNDS, supra n. 93, at 442-444; ICE, 2019
NDS, supra n. 93, at 195, 197.

138

139

Homan, Trans Care Memo. supra n. 58, at 3.

ICE, 2000 NDS (Medical Care), supra n. 123, at 9; ICE, 2008 PBNDS (Medical Care), supra n. 123, at 20; ICE, 2011 PBNDS, supra n. 93, at 277-278; ICE, 2019 NDS,
supra n. 93, at 119-120.

140

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141

ICE, 2011 PBNDS, supra n. 93, at 263; ICE, 2019 NDS, supra n. 93, at 118.

142

Id.

143

ICE, 2011 PBNDS, supra n. 93, at 273-274.

144

ICE, 2019 NDS, supra n. 93 at 117.

145

Homan, Trans Care Memo. supra n. 58, at 4.

146

Id. at 10.

OIG. El Paso Sector Border Patrol Struggled with Prolonged Detention and Consistent Compliance with TEDS Standards. August 9, 2022.
https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2022-08/OIG-22-57-Aug22.pdf; GAO. Southwest Border: CBP Oversees Short-Term Custody Standards, but Border
Patrol Could Better Monitor Care of At-Risk Individuals. September 28, 2022. https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-22-105321.pdf.
147

148

CBP, TEDS, supra n. 2, at 4.

149

Id. at 14.

150

Id. at 24.

151

Id. at 17.

152

Id.

153

Id. at 14.

154

Id. at 17.

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