Trans Women in Immigration Detention Forced Off Hormone Medications

Valentina, a 25-year-old transgender asylum seeker from Nicaragua identified by her middle name, says she was shackled, interrogated over an accusation she denies, and placed in an isolation cell for nine days at the Eloy Detention Center in June, and that she went 22 days without any hormone therapy after entering detention. The report, by LOOKOUT, estimates at least 20 transgender women are held in ICE facilities across Arizona and Colorado, almost all in men’s units or solitary confinement; the Aurora ICE Processing Center dismantled one of its two transgender housing pods roughly a year ago to make room for more men. Attorneys and gender-affirming care specialists described weeks-long interruptions in hormone therapy that cause menopause-like symptoms and severe psychological distress. An ICE spokesperson said the agency does not use solitary confinement, only “segregated housing,” and provides “comprehensive medical care,” while a DHS spokesperson said detention space is designated “by biological sex and not by gender identity.”