Immigration and Customs Enforcement has refused to release a transgender migrant woman from detention in an all-male facility, even though advocates say she has a credible asylum claim and has faced abuse from guards and fellow detainees.
The case of Nicoll Hernández-Polanco, an asylum seeker detained in Florence, Arizona, has become a rallying point for immigrant rights groups and the LGBT community, with some advocates arguing that ICE should stop detaining transgender people altogether.
–
But advocates say ICE routinely fails to follow its own rules, calling the Hernández-Polanco case emblematic of a wider problem.
“ICE has shown over and over again that they are incapable of detaining transgender people with even minimal levels of dignity and safety,” Tomchin said. “We really believe that the only solution is for ICE to not detain trans people at all.”
