Trump Strips Rape Protections For Trans People In ICE Custody

New guidance from the Trump administration has stripped transgender people in ICE custody of safeguards against rape.

As per reporting from The American Prospect, the Department of Homeland Security revised the guidance for multiple privately-run ICE facilities on January 5, revoking safety measures and ceasing medical care for trans detainees.

Citing Trump’s executive order “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”, the changes also revoke all diversity, equity and inclusion and accessibility language.

The number of trans people in ICE custody is unknown, with the Department of Homeland Security last year ordering the cessation of collecting and publishing that data. The last report, published on January 12, 2025, counted 47 trans people in ICE detention, however advocates warn that the number is not reflective of the true figures as many trans people will not self-identity as trans for safety reasons.

As of January 8, there are 68,990 people under ICE custody, marking a record high.

Bridget Crawford, director of law and policy at Immigration Equality, told Prospect that most trans people in the custody of ICE were escaping transphobia in their home countries, with many already enduring “incredibly high levels of sexual assault”.

“They’ve endured just the most horrific persecution you can imagine,” Crawford said. “They’re coming here for protection, and they find themselves in immigration detention, which by law cannot be punitive, but we see that it is.”

No way to humanely detains trans people, say advocates

Findings from the Human Rights Campaign in 2014 estimated about 40 per cent of trans prisoners reported enduring sexual abuse in ICE detention facilities, compared to 14 per of gay, lesbian, and bisexual prisoners, and 3.1 per cent of non-LGBTQ+ people.

Under 2015 guidance, immigration prisons were meant to “provide a respectful, safe, and secure environment for all detainees, including those individuals who identify as transgender”, as well as provide “effective safeguards against sexual abuse and assault for all individuals.

“There’s no way to safely and humanely detain trans people,” said Isa Noyola, an advocate at the Transgender Law Center. “Putting resources and so much energy to make rainbow- or trans-colored cages doesn’t make sense. The structure, the homophobia, the transphobia, all the stigmatisation, they want to train ICE officers on pronouns, but that’s not going to really improve the quality of life. The asylum process is already a traumatic process.”

Last year, the Trump administration made similar changes to safeguards in prisons, with a Justice Department memo to auditors tasked with tracking sexual abuse in federal prisons that prisons and jails will no longer be held responsible for violations of standards to protect LGBTQIA+ people from harassment and rape, “effective immediately”.

The memo also cited the same “restoring biological truth” executive order.