“As a transgender woman, Channel Ferro Badell has spent her life fleeing discrimination, trafficking and abuse — first in Uruguay, where she was born, then in Argentina, where she is a citizen. But few experiences compare to what she suffered during her time in ICE custody, she told me.

“‘In six months I was taken to six facilities,’ she wrote in Spanish in messages to The Marshall Project. ‘In every one, the situation is the same: Violence is tolerated within ICE.’

“The second Trump administration has singled out immigrants and transgender people — among others — for particular scorn and scrutiny. People at the intersection of those two identities have become a target in ICE custody, and many have described harassment, humiliation, assault and denial of medical care in interviews with The Marshall Project and other news outlets. The administration denied the allegations.

“Last month, The New York Times [spoke to Camila Toro de Paula](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/20/nyregion/transgender-migrants-ice.html), a 25-year-old transgender woman who has spent more than a year in an immigrant camp for men despite a pending asylum claim. She and other women in at least 10 ICE detention camps across the country have had their access to gender-affirming hormone therapy abruptly cut off, the Times reported.

“‘I’m afraid of dying here,’ she told the paper.

“Lookout News identified [at least 20 transgender women that ICE detained across Arizona and Colorado](https://www.lookoutnews.org/transgender-women-denied-medical-care-ice-facility/) alone, and found that many had experienced devastating effects from a sudden stop to hormone therapy, including ‘rapid, menopause-like symptoms, spiking suicidal ideation and severe psychological distress.’ 

“As one transgender woman told Lookout: ‘It messes up your body … Like it’s eating you up inside.’

“In interviews, emails and letters with more than half a dozen transgender women in three ICE immigrant camps in Louisiana and Texas, as well as court documents and testimonials, I heard stories of sexual assault, constant harassment — both by staff and fellow detainees — and a sense of betrayal that the country where they had sought refuge and safety was treating them like criminals.”

ICE Treatment of Transgender Women Reversing Years-Long Practices