US Considers More Options For Detaining Transgender Migrants

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is considering opening a second permanent facility where transgender migrants can be detained amid the influx of Central Americans crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. While transgender migrants represent a small fraction of those in federal custody, their numbers have grown exponentially.

About 300 migrants who identify as transgender have been booked into the custody of U.S. immigration authorities since Oct. 1 — the highest number since officials started keeping track in 2015. There are currently about 115 in custody in 29 different facilities around the country.

That includes more than two dozen at the transgender unit at Cibola County Correctional Center in Milan, a small high desert community where many buildings are boarded up and abandoned motels line a stretch of historic Route 66. About a dozen more transgender migrants are being held in a temporary unit in southern Texas.

Immigration authorities have been the focus of much criticism over the treatment of transgender migrants, with advocacy groups claiming medical care is often lacking and that staff members are not adequately trained to deal with what they say is a vulnerable population at risk for harassment and abuse.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials dispute the allegations, saying the agency adheres to federal prison standards and made a significant investment when opening the New Mexico transgender unit two years ago.

“We realized there was a need,” said Corey Price, field office director of the agency’s Enforcement and Removal Operations.

During the first-ever tour for journalists of Unit 900, Price told The Associated Press and other media outlets Wednesday that the agency had nothing to hide, though interviews and conversations with detainees were not allowed.

Some of the detainees leaned against the shaded wall of the recreation yard, waiting to resume their game after breaking for the tour. Some waved and bid farewell in Spanish as the group moved on. Others were reading in the library.

Price said officials wanted to show what it’s like for the women inside the unit, where detainees can move around freely for most of the day and the walls are painted light blue rather than white.

Bulletin boards list the lunch menu and activities such as legal clinics and prayer services. There are also reminders that beds must be made by 9 a.m.

While the doors have been removed from individual rooms in the sleeping area, privacy shades are stretched across the bars, and placards remind male staffers to announce their presence before they step into the rooms.