The Forgotten Frontier - Healthcare for Transgender Detainees in Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention

Authors

Dana O'Day-Senior

Abstract

a challenge for anyone, but for transgender individuals, the lack of healthcare policy specifically addressing the healthcare needs of transgender individuals can mean that ICE detention is hazardous to one's health. Many researchers have studied the challenges faced by transgender individuals in the prison setting, and many researchers have examined the problems with healthcare access and delivery in ICE detention facilities. However, so far no one has bridged the gap between the two areas of research and looked at the specific challenges ICE detention poses for healthcare for transgender individuals.

This Note attempts to bridge that gap by focusing into the area of ICE detention. This Note will give a brief overview of the common challenges faced by transgender individuals in prisons before comparing, contrasting, and evaluating existing transgender healthcare policies and regulations in state and federal prison systems, and then contrasting these policies with existing ICE healthcare regulation. This Note will then discuss the remedies currently available to transgender individuals in ICE detention who have healthcare problems, and concludes by making recommendations of how ICE's existing regulations could be improved to help ensure adequate and appropriate healthcare for all transgender detainees.

Recommended Citation

Dana O'Day-Senior, The Forgotten Frontier - Healthcare for Transgender Detainees in Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention, 60 Hastings L.J. 453 (2008).
Available at: https://repository.uclawsf.edu/hastings_law_journal/vol60/iss2/10