By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
ERO police officer escorts potential deportees on an enforcement bus headed to ICE detention facility in Chicago
Since 2015, detention facilities had to take into account the gender identity of trans migrants. Not any more.
Transgender people who U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials detain are no longer recognized by their gender identity, and detention facilities are no longer required to take special care in housing trans detainees.
Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.
A contracting specialist with the Department of Homeland Security, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal processes, described to The Advocate how the system was unraveling from the inside.
The policy shift dismantles a 2015 memo — written, ironically, by President Donald Trump’s now border czar Tom Homan — that detailed how trans people were to be treated in ICE custody. It also puts ICE facilities in danger of violating a congressional mandate that requires ICE to track the number and conditions of transgender detainees. It further means that under the new rules, transgender immigrants are being classified strictly by their sex assigned at birth, often housed in facilities that disregard their identities, and denied basic accommodations they previously were entitled to.
Although ICE detention centers are technically supposed to keep following the old standards, such as keeping data on trans immigrants detained, until new contracts are finalized, the DHS official explained that once those contracts are updated, the previous protections and rules — again, such as for trans immigrants —are just gone.
In May, the official told The Advocate that ICE’s contracting offices had already received instructions to implement the new policy but were deliberately stalling changes “as long as we can,” hoping to delay enforcement for up to 45 days while awaiting clearer guidance from leadership. That period has now passed.
Related: LGBTQ+ immigrants face 'most immediate risk' of ICE raids in Los Angeles
“Most of us hate it,” the official said of the new policy, describing it as part of a broader effort by political appointees “to essentially keep an eye on what we were doing.”
This internal resistance is unfolding as ICE quietly rescinded longstanding policies designed to protect transgender people in immigration detention. The move, confirmed by internal memos, contract documents, and updated federal detention standards reviewed by The Advocate, is part of a sweeping effort under Trump to erase recognition of transgender identities from federal policy, and, in effect, from public view.
But the consequences of this bureaucratic erasure go far beyond paper, touching the real lives and safety of some of the most vulnerable people in U.S. custody.
“This is part and parcel of a larger effort to really erase trans people,” Bridget Crawford, director of law and policy for Immigration Equality, told The Intercept, which reported last week that ICE had stopped releasing figures on how many transgender people are held in its facilities. “They are not even willing to try to track the trans population, despite the congressional mandate.”
At the center of the policy reversal is the repeal of the 2015 Transgender Care Memorandum, a sweeping directive that for years governed how ICE handled housing, medical care, and protection for transgender detainees. That memo, signed on June 19, 2015, by Homan, then the executive associate director of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, wasn’t a minor procedural document. It served as a comprehensive blueprint for safeguarding transgender people in detention.
Homan’s 18-page guidance detailed procedures for identifying transgender detainees during intake, using respectful names and pronouns, ensuring privacy during searches, and providing appropriate medical care, including hormone therapy. Facilities were required to create individualized detention plans developed by multidisciplinary Transgender Classification and Care Committees, all aimed at reducing the risk of sexual assault, medical neglect, and mistreatment.
Under the 2015 policy, ICE also committed to collecting and reporting data on transgender detainees, a practice that allowed advocates and legal service providers to monitor conditions and push for accountability.
All of that has now been reversed.
Related: German officials alarmed over U.S. immigration confusion as green card holder remains trapped in ICE custody
In a memo dated April 17, 2025, Acting Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations Kenneth Genalo declared that ICE would “no longer proactively screen for, or record in ICE data systems, related information on aliens who self-identify as a sex other than their biological sex at birth.” The same memo eliminated requirements for specialized committees and individualized housing plans, instructing detention centers instead to house detainees according to their sex assigned at birth.
These policy changes originate from Trump’s January executive order titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism And Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government,” which mandates that all federal agencies define individuals strictly by their sex assigned at birth.
That directive is now fully reflected in the updated 2025 National Detention Standards, which show the depth of the policy overhaul. “In 2025, ICE is again revising NDS to align with the Executive Order,” the updated standards read. “Accordingly, references to gender have been replaced with sex throughout the standards.”
The change affects how detainees are classified, how searches are conducted, how personal hygiene needs are accommodated, and how sexual abuse and assault prevention protocols are implemented. Even staff training materials and official definitions have been rewritten to align with the new federal mandate.
A side-by-side policy comparison reviewed by The Advocate highlights the magnitude of the rollback. Under the previous rules, transgender detainees were entitled to individualized custody plans, specialized medical and mental health care, privacy accommodations, and respectful treatment by staff. Now, ICE’s policies explicitly require housing based on biological sex, permit hormone therapy only if it began before detention and is deemed medically necessary, and remove requirements for staff training on transgender sensitivity.
ICE did not respond to questions from The Advocate about why the 2015 memo disappeared from public view, how many transgender people remain in detention, or how it intends to comply with Congress’s mandate to report data on vulnerable populations.
The policy rollback has significant implications for private prison corporations contracted by ICE to operate many of its detention facilities. Companies such as CoreCivic, The GEO Group, and Management & Training Corporation run centers where transgender immigrants have been held.
Internal ICE documents reviewed by The Advocate reveal that as recently as last year, 12 detention centers across the country included explicit transgender care provisions in their contracts. Among the facilities identified were the Adams County Detention Center in Mississippi; Cibola County Correctional Center and Torrance County Detention Center in New Mexico; Dilley Immigration Processing Center, Houston Processing Center, Laredo Processing Center, T. Don Hutto Detention Center, and Webb County Detention Center in Texas; Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey; Eloy Detention Center in Arizona; Otay Mesa Detention Center in California; and Stewart Detention Center in Georgia.
The Intercept reports that before ICE’s public reporting vanished, data collected under the Biden administration showed a modest but rising number of transgender people in detention, from only a few in 2021 to as many as 60 in 2024.
