An immigration detainment facility in Aurora, Colorado, has ended its provision of medical care and protective policies for transgender inmates. The facility was one of two nationwide that provided gender-affirming care, though the presidential administration has ended similar care at other facilities since taking office last January.

Officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ended the policy earlier this month in a memo to the GEO Group, the company that operates the facility. The memo ended a 2022 directive requiring staff to continue providing gender-affirming care to detainees who were already receiving it before their detainment, The Denver Post reported.

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The 2022 policy also required facilities to house trans detainees in special units or ones matching their gender identity, to allow them to bathe separately with protection from specially trained guards, and to establish a committee to oversee the facility’s treatment of trans detainees.

As of last month, the Aurora facility had placed eight detainees in its trans unit, according to a report issued by U.S. Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO). While ICE had sent trans detainees to the facility specifically to continue their gender-affirming care, new trans detainees are being housed among the facility’s general population, according to Monique Sherman, managing attorney for the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network’s detention program.

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In April 2024, the American Immigration Council filed a civil rights complaint that detailed first-hand accounts of Aurora trans detainees who had alleged abuse at the facility.

One trans detainee said she was “denied critical medical attention,” “suffered repeated verbal and sexual harassment,” and was ignored when she requested medical care, leading to “feelings of depression and hopelessness.”

“I thought they’d take care of us, give us more freedom, recognize that we have suffered the most, we are the most vulnerable. We came from our countries being horribly treated, and we get here and they treat us horribly,” said one inmate named Charlotte.

In March 2025, ICE altered contracts for at least two immigration detention centers in Florida and New York, removing transgender care requirements, The Intercept reported.

Ann Garcia, a staff attorney at the National Immigration Project, told the publication that ICE had long failed to enforce its own trans care standards (making them largely ineffective), but added that dropping the standards sends a message that “the lives of people who are trans in that detention center are not valued and that abuse can be carried out with impunity.”

Most transgender inmates are denied routine healthcare in detention facilities, and an estimated 35% report harassment by other inmates and prison staff, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality. Trans inmates were also 10 times as likely to be sexually assaulted by other inmates, according to a 2022 report by Advocates for Trans Equality.

In previous lawsuits, trans inmates have argued that the denial of gender-affirming care worsens their gender dysphoria, violates their Eighth Amendment Constitutional protections against “cruel and unusual punishment,” and also violates both the Americans with Disabilities Act and the federal Rehabilitation Act.

Gender-affirming care is considered essential and life-saving by all major American medical associations.

The ending of the policy is part of the current presidential administration’s ongoing crusade to eradicate trans people from existence. The president has issued several executive orders and made public statements referring to trans people as mentally ill, selfish, dishonorable, deceitful, and undisciplined. He has ordered all federal agencies to deny trans people’s existence and to end any trans-inclusive policies.

A June 2025 report found that ICE is excluding trans population statistics from its biweekly public reports in violation of congressional mandate, making it more difficult to advocate for the rights of trans detainees.

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