Methodology

The ways in which ICE’s detention standards further anti-trans violence merit reports of their own, as ICE reinforces anti-trans violence in multiple ways through language, policies, and lack of policies. For example, ICE erases nonbinary people by repeatedly utilizing language of “same gender” and “opposite gender” throughout the detention standards.3 It is unclear under what circumstances a detained transgender or gender-nonconforming person could safely express their gender identity within detention considering the scale of accounts of mistreatment.4 According to ICE, all people detained at Karnes during this time period were women, but this is likely inaccurate.

This report will cover not only the legal and medical experiences and outcomes of women detained at Karnes in 2019, but will also touch on their experiences prior to Karnes. In addition, because of the particularities of the expedited removal process, the report will include some background to explain expedited removal and asylum. Furthermore, because of the unique nature of RAICES’ family detention services legal program at the time, the report will provide some context as to how services were provided in 2019 and the state in which women encountered RAICES staff. To illustrate the context in which women were detained in 2019, the report will also include information about the population detained at Karnes prior to the adult women— fathers and sons reunited at Karnes after Trump’s zero tolerance family separations. Because of the plethora of data collected, the report will include graphics and appendices to expound upon information relevant to the topics covered.

While the report compares adult detention to the relatively less harmful practices that occurred in family detention, comparisons are not meant to undermine the serious harms of family detention5 or endorse the practice. RAICES believes unequivocally that all immigrant detention is needlessly punitive and should be abolished. For more information on the harms of family detention, please read RAICES’ 2020 report, “The U.S. Government Kidnapped My Son.”6

3.U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Performance-Based National Detention Standards 2011, https://www.ice.gov/doclib/detention-standards/2011/pbnds2011r2016. pdf 4. Ana Castro. LGBTQ, Civil Rights and Immigration Justice Organizations Call For Release of LGBTQ, PLWHIV Currently In Immigration Prisons. Transgender Law Ctr. Sep. 15, 2019, https://transgenderlawcenter.org/archives/14789 5.RAICES, Fact Sheet: Things to Know About ICE Family Detention, Jan. 28, 2021. https:// www.raicestexas.org/2021/01/28/family-detention-factsheet/ 6. RAICES, The U.S. Government Kidnapped My Son, 2019, https://www.raicestexas.org/ take-action/karnes-pro-bono-project/ms-l-report/

• Transgender Law Center

• Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project (BLMP)

• Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement

• LGBTQ Freedom Fund

• Lambda Legal

This section of the report will provide foundational information about the context of RAICES’ services at Karnes including methodology, a brief description of the modern use of immigrant family detention as a policy strategy, the legal framework families face while in detention, and the model by which RAICES provided legal services at Karnes.

This report was written by a group of women, none of whom are Black or trans. The information presented in this report is aggregate data from clients, collected by RAICES staff. Due to the program’s position as the only nonprofit legal service provider dedicated to representation at Karnes, RAICES typically works with a majority of the people detained there. In initial meetings with new clients, staff present clients with an agreement form that describes the scope of legal services and the advocacy mission of the program and asks for consent to share non-personally identifiable information6

Due to both the volume of the work and constant operational changes from ICE that impact access to counsel, obtaining comprehensive data from all clients can present challenges. Data accuracy is also dependent on both what clients report and what staff record from client interactions. Limitations on access to counsel, covered later in this report, impede the comprehensiveness of data collection. The shift in population at the detention center, and with it an increased volume of individual cases, limited the scope of information that RAICES could obtain from individual clients. Data in this report comes from databases that include client intake documents, client declarations, and staff case notes. An unknown portion of the data may be missing or inaccurate, but the best effort has been made to cross-check data in this report, and the authors have used the most conservative numbers possible as a means to ensure accuracy. Thus, while the data may be incomplete, it is likely the most comprehensive information available outside of government records.

6. Any information shared regarding specific clients is subject to a separate consent process in which staff ascertain a particular level of anonymity with which clients are comfortable.