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10/5/2026
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Three transgender women who have been detained for months at a male-only central Louisiana immigration detention center allege that they have faced abuse and transphobia at the hands of staff and other detainees.

Two of the women — Estephany Rivas and Sofia — have spent months at Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena. The third, Camila Toro de Paula, has been there for more than a year.

The Trump administration forces trans women to be housed with men in detention centers. U.S. Immigration and Enforcement (ICE) houses the women in solitary confinement for their protection, but the women say the isolation has not prevented them from enduring death threats, humiliating pat downs and physical abuse by staff.

“There is nothing in the system that is built to recognize their full humanity as trans people, and now there’s no mechanisms in place to protect them from transphobic violence, from abuse of solitary confinement,” Mich González, a New Orleans-based immigrant rights attorney who has represented trans women in detention, said about the Trump administration ending protections for transgender detainees.

The three women had all been living in the U.S. for several years. Like most immigrant detainees, they do not have active criminal charges against them.

They are seeking asylum in the U.S. after facing death threats and attempted rapes in their home countries due to being transgender, and at least one has been persecuted by cartels.

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Story by @cris.seda