New immigration detention center in Texas will have a special unit for transgender detainees, who face higher risk of sexual assault
- The new center will be the second of its kind in the federal system
- It is due to open in November in Alvarado, Texas, southwest of Dallas
- Will be privately-run and include 36 beds for transgender detainees
- Federal guidelines say detention staff should ask incoming detainees about their gender identity and  respect their preference
A new immigration detention center set to open in Texas will have a special unit for transgender people.
The facility, due to be completed in November, will include 36 beds for transgender detainees, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a statement.
The privately-run center, located in Alvarado, southwest of Dallas, will be the second facility of its kind in the federal system.Â
The only other one, in Santa Ana, California, held 28 transgender people last week, according to the agency.Â
A new immigration detention center in Alvarado, Texas, will have a special unit for transgender people. Pictured, immigrants wait after turning themselves in to border patrol agents near Rio Grande City, Texas
Federal guidelines instruct detention staff to ask incoming detainees about their chosen gender identity and make accommodations based on their preference.
The guidelines include instructions on conducting searches, providing clothing based on a detainee's stated gender identity, and maintaining safety.
But advocates say transgender immigrants often face certain challenges, such as a higher risk of sexual assault, the impossibility to get hormone replacement treatments, and guards unfamiliar with gender identity issues.
More than half of 28 women were held in men's facilities at some point during their detention, a Human Rights Watch report found in March.
Half were held in solitary confinement.
One Honduran woman identified in the report, who was held at a detention center in Arizona, reported being raped by three men
She said a guard then told her: 'You are the ones that cause these problems and always call the men's attention.'
ICE said Monday it would work with advocate groups in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, just northwest of where the facility is located, to assist transgender people in custody.
But some experts say the best step federal officials could take is to do away with transgender detention altogether.
Independent oversight is needed for detention facilities, particularly those run privately, according to Carmina Ocampo, a staff attorney at the advocacy group Lambda Legal.
'Without any mechanisms to enforce that, it just seems unlikely that transgender people will be kept safe and not subjected to abuse and mistreatment,' she said.Â
The new center, set to open in November, will be the second of its kind in the federal system. The other one (pictured), located in Santa Ana, California, held 28 transgender people last week
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