U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement plan to include 36 beds for transgender illegal aliens in a new facility in Texas.
The Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, will open in Alvarado and will have the most stringent regulations in ICE facilities with regards to transgender illegal immigrants. An individualized detention plan will “[cover] items such as searches, clothing options, hygiene practices, medical care, and housing assignments,” ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok told Fusion.
“The facility is expected to house about 700 detainees, including a separate 36-bed unit for transgender individuals,” Rusnok said. The facility will be operated and managed by Emerald Correctional management, a private prison company. The facility will cost $42 million and create more than 100 new jobs in the area, according to The Cleburne-Times Review.
In 2015, ICE released guidelines regarding transgender individuals. This included the “formation of a facility-based multidisciplinary Transgender Care Classification Committee that will be responsible for making decisions related to searches, clothing options, housing assignments, medical care, and housing reassessments for transgender individuals.”