ICE denied transgender women hormone therapy and gender-affirming care at Eloy and Aurora detention facilities
An August 31, 2026 LOOKOUT investigation documented transgender women detained by ICE at the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona and the Aurora ICE Processing Center in Colorado being denied hormone therapy and other gender-affirming medical care, producing menopause-like symptoms, severe psychological distress, and increased suicidal ideation; one detainee, identified only as Valentina, went 22 days without hormones and was later held in isolation for nine days over an unsubstantiated accusation. The denials followed a series of 2025-2026 federal policy changes, including a Bureau of Prisons halt on gender-affirming care, a Justice Department narrowing of PREA protections for LGBTQ+ detainees, and Aurora's dismantling of one of its two transgender housing pods, and a separate New York Times investigation independently confirmed the Department of Homeland Security has curtailed specialized transgender care at detention centers nationwide.
Actors
An August 31, 2026 LOOKOUT investigation documented at least 20 transgender women held in ICE custody across Arizona and Colorado, most housed in men's units rather than according to gender identity and many denied their hormone therapy. At the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona, a detainee identified as Valentina went 22 days without hormones after her detention began and then received insufficient doses; she was later placed in isolation for nine days following an unsubstantiated sexual-misconduct accusation. Another detainee, Renata, was forced off her medication over an eight-month detention. Medical professionals quoted in the investigation said abruptly discontinuing hormone therapy can trigger rapid menopause-like symptoms, and LGBTQ+ health advocates described the effect as forced detransition. ICE told LOOKOUT it has "a longstanding practice of providing comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody," without disputing that hormone therapy access had been curtailed.
The denials followed a series of federal policy changes: the Bureau of Prisons announced a policy halting gender-affirming medical and social transition care in February 2026, the Department of Justice revised Prison Rape Elimination Act regulations in December 2025 to stop evaluating protections for LGBTQ+ detainees, and the Aurora ICE Processing Center in Colorado dismantled its lower-security transgender housing pod in late 2025, leaving only one such pod for higher-security housing. The federal government has also stopped publicly tracking how many transgender people are held in immigration detention, obscuring the practice's full scale.
A separate New York Times investigation, published independently of LOOKOUT's reporting, found the Department of Homeland Security has halted specialized transgender care at no fewer than ten detention centers nationwide, from Calexico, California, to Batavia, New York, and no longer consistently provides hormone therapy or other gender-related care to transgender detainees. In a statement to the Times, DHS said it was "NOT wasting U.S. taxpayer dollars to provide hormone therapy to illegal aliens seeking to change their sex," confirming the policy change described in both investigations.
Why we recorded this
Custody strips a person of the ability to seek their own medical care, making the state's monopoly on that access a form of abuse when withheld. ICE has cut off hormone therapy to transgender women in its custody, producing documented menopause-like symptoms, worsening gender dysphoria, and increased suicidal ideation, while housing them in men's units or isolation rather than according to gender identity. The government's own on-the-record defense does not dispute that hormone access has been curtailed, only that other medical care continues, and the underlying policy changes (an eliminated federal tracking requirement, a narrowed PREA audit standard, and a closed transgender housing pod) were each a deliberate administrative choice rather than a resource shortfall.
Sources
- Inside ICE Facilities, Trans Women Denied Their Medical Care — LOOKOUT investigative accessed September 1, 2026
- Trans migrants in ICE detention are losing their rights and medical care — The Philadelphia Inquirer (via The New York Times) primary accessed September 1, 2026
See also
- Deportees say ICE agents assaulted, restrained, and denied them medical care and bathroom access on Liberia deportation flight
- Minnesota Star Tribune investigation revealed ICE held Whipple detainees in overcrowded cells without bedding, medical care, or menstrual products
- Capital & Main investigation revealed ICE and CoreCivic denied an asylum seeker medical care for a kidney infection at Otay Mesa
- AP investigation reveals ICE detained more than 50 spouses and parents of active-duty troops amid military-family policy rollback
- Guardian investigation reveals ICE force-fed Kurdish asylum seeker Gabar Choli for eight months at Texas detention center
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