The US Must Keep its Promises to LGBTQ+ Immigrants

The United States has a history of protecting immigrants who face persecution that targets their LGBTQ+ identity. Decades-long legal precedent has established the availability of asylum and other protections based on LGBTQ+ identity.

U.S. courts have even acknowledged the particular vulnerability that the transgender community faces within the broader LGBTQ+ community. For example, the Ninth Circuit acknowledged that legal rights for gay and lesbian people don’t necessarily protect transgender people, writing “significant evidence suggests that transgender persons are especially visible, and vulnerable, to harassment and persecution due to their often-public nonconformance with normative gender roles.”

However, the United States is abdicating its role as a pinnacle of safety and protection for this marginalized community. The government’s refusal to provide humanitarian relief to transgender immigrants is just one of the ways the Trump administration is attacking the broader transgender community. Today, people who flee anti-LGBTQ+ violence in their countries of origin often end up experiencing violence within the U.S. immigration system.

One Woman’s Fight Against Immigration Detention and Third Country Removal

Despite winning protection from removal to her country of origin, under the Convention Against Torture, National Immigration Law Center client Ms. D.B. is spending Pride Month caged in immigration detention. She was a child when she fled anti-LGBTQ+ harassment and violence in Jamaica, a country that is considered among the most hostile countries to LGBTQ+ people in the Americas. The Rainbow Railroad, a nonprofit group dedicated to the safety of LGBTQ+ people fleeing harm, concluded that “LGBTQI+ Jamaicans continue to suffer horrific violence, discrimination and persecution, and lack the most basic protections under the law.”

After fleeing Jamaica, Ms. D.B., who is a transgender woman, spent over two decades building a life for herself in the United States. She found friendship and community in New York City’s queer community. Now, as ICE and the Trump administration increase aggressive immigration enforcement tactics, she is being harmed by the very country in which she sought protection. Historically, immigrants who win CAT protection, like Ms. D.B., have generally been able to obtain work authorization and live in the United States indefinitely. Instead, the United States government has tried to send Ms. D.B. to at least six different countries – none of which she has any ties to, and at least two of which are ones where she fears she’ll experience the same type of anti-LGBTQ+ violence she fled in Jamaica.

This is part of the Trump administration’s larger third country removal policy: ICE tries to send immigrants in the United States to other countries, regardless of that person’s lack of connection to the country or the danger they may face there.

Instead of releasing Ms. D.B. from detention, as would be expected based on long-standing practice, ICE has kept her from her loved ones since October 2025. Ms. D.B. has been in immigration detention for almost eight months — even though she won CAT protection many years ago.

To make matters worse, ICE has treated Ms. D.B. horrifically in detention. The agency is detaining her in an all-male section of the detention facility where other detainees and guards subject her to slurs, sexual harassment, and unwanted touching. Ms. D.B. is at great risk for bodily injury, including assault and rape. The detention facilities have also denied Ms. D.B. access to her medically necessary hormone treatment.

Ms. D.B.’s experiences are tragically common as ICE has a track record of placing transgender immigrants in dangerous conditions. LGBTQ+ immigrants in detention frequently face “high rates of physical and sexual violence, improper and prolonged solitary confinement, and inadequate medical care among other forms of systemic abuse and neglect.”

The Scope of Anti-Trans Violence in the Immigration System

We have no way of knowing how many other transgender people like Ms. D.B are trapped in immigration detention and facing horrific violence. ICE has stopped releasing data about the number of transgender immigrants it detains. In the last available report, ICE stated that it took 700 individuals who self-identified as transgender into custody between October 1, 2020, and January 12, 2025. This number is surely an undercount since not all transgender immigrants will disclose their gender identity to ICE.

The reality for transgender people in detention is only going to get more dire, as ICE continues detaining more and more people. The Trump administration rescinded the few policies intended to protect transgender immigrants in detention, including best practices for housing, clothing, and bathrooms, as well as safeguards intended to prevent medical neglect and sexual assault.

All Hope Is Not Lost for LGBTQ+ Immigrants

Attorneys from NILC and Make the Road NY have filed a habeas petition on Ms. D.B.’s behalf, asking the court to order ICE to release Ms. D.B because her detention has become illegally prolonged. There are also an increasing number of lawyers and organizations taking on habeas corpus cases for immigrants nationwide. Many other resources are available for immigrants seeking support and justice from violence and persecution, including nonprofits like Rainbow Railroad and Immigration Equality.

As we celebrate Pride Month, let us remember all the LGBTQ+ immigrants in detention, especially transgender and gender non-conforming people, and rededicate ourselves to the legacy of the United States as a country that welcomes and protects all people.