ICE Disappears Transgender Detainee Data From Public Reports
Omission of federally mandated transgender detainee data signals rollback in transparency as Trump administration resumes hardline detention policies.
WASHINGTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has stopped including transgender population statistics in its biweekly detention reports, in apparent violation of a congressional mandate first enacted in 2021, per an article by Vera, an advocacy organization focused on mass incarceration. The omission marks another step in the Trump administration’s rollback of protections for transgender people in federal custody.
Since February 4, 2025—shortly after President Donald Trump returned to office—ICE has failed to publish data on transgender individuals in its custody, despite an ongoing legal requirement to do so. The last known report containing such data was published on January 17, 2025, and archived by the Vera Institute of Justice.
As we’ve reported in the past, transgender detainees face unique challenges in ICE detention. Disappearances of trans folk in detention can be sudden, leaving other detainees to speculate on their fate (read more here).
The 2021 mandate requires ICE to publicly report every two weeks on the number of people in custody who identify as transgender, intersex, or gender nonconforming. ICE continues to report other required figures, including the number of individuals in solitary confinement and the duration of their confinement.
The change is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to dismantle existing federal protections for transgender people. On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order mandating that all individuals in federal custody be housed according to their sex assigned at birth. Soon after, ICE removed the 2015 “Transgender Care Memorandum” from its website and revised multiple detention facility contracts to eliminate requirements for transgender-specific care.
Other federal agencies have also altered or erased language related to gender identity. The Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review has replaced “gender” with “sex” in its immigration court case database. ICE, for its part, changed how it classifies individuals held in segregation. As of April 2025, it no longer refers explicitly to individuals who self-identify as LGBTQI. Instead, it uses a broader and more ambiguous description: people “who may be susceptible to harm... due in part to how others interpret or assume their sexual orientation, or sexual presentation or expression.”
These changes coincide with broader efforts by the administration to scale up mass deportations and immigration detention while reducing transparency and oversight. ICE’s website overwrites older biweekly detention reports, effectively deleting historical data from public view. Advocacy groups, including the Vera Institute, have archived earlier reports to preserve data on vulnerable populations.
From October 1, 2020, to January 12, 2025, ICE recorded at least 700 transgender “book-ins” to detention, according to the agency’s own reports. On January 12, ICE reported that 47 transgender people were in custody. The figures were based on self-identification, but many transgender detainees are reluctant to disclose their identity to authorities due to safety concerns, suggesting the true number may be higher.
Though limited, the published statistics offered a baseline understanding of how many transgender people were in ICE custody. Advocates argue that ICE’s recent omissions—alongside the removal of diversity-related language and data—undermine government accountability and make it harder to protect vulnerable populations.
ICE is still legally required to publish transgender detention statistics under the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act of 2025. Other regulatory frameworks, such as the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), also remain in effect, including definitions intended to ensure protections for LGBTQI individuals in custody.
Despite this, oversight bodies have been weakened. Under Trump, the Department of Homeland Security offices tasked with handling detention complaints were gutted. DHS also stopped publishing its monthly “Immigration Enforcement and Legal Processes” statistics in January 2025.
Advocates and lawmakers have called for stronger protections for transgender and nonbinary detainees, including the possibility of prohibiting ICE from detaining transgender individuals altogether. In the meantime, ICE’s failure to follow reporting requirements raises questions about enforcement of existing laws and the agency’s commitment to transparency.
Behind each missing data point, advocates say, is a person—often isolated, at risk, and rendered invisible by the very systems meant to monitor their welfare.
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