Transgender woman alleges abuse inside Arizona ICE detention

A transgender immigrant says U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Arizona denied her proper medical care and housed her in a men’s detention facility, where she says she experienced harassment, sexual violence, and degrading treatment.

Karla Saenz told Tucson NBC affiliate KVOA that she experienced insensitive and degrading treatment while being kept in custody for more than a month at the Eloy Detention Center in Eloy.

"They did not give us enough food, and I spent a week without being allowed to bathe,” Saenz told the outlet.

She also said ICE denied access to hormone therapy.

“ICE took a month to give me my medication. Having my treatment abruptly taken away caused severe pain in my body as well as my mental health," she said.

Related: Trump administration stops abuse protection for transgender detainees in ICE custody

Saenz, an organizer with Trans Queer Pueblo, was arrested in March during a scheduled check-in. At the time, other activists in the area told LGBTQ+ outlet Lookout the arrest was likely motivated by her advocacy for the release of another queer detainee.

“They took us to a back room and said Karla had an arrest warrant, but they did not provide one. They handcuffed Karla and took her away,” Cristen Pointer, an activist working with Saenz.

Trans Queer Pueblo had called for her release while alleging retribution.

“Prior to her detention, Karla had publicly advocated for the release of Arbella ‘Yari’ Rodríguez Márquez, a Phoenix resident living with lymphocytic leukemia whose health has sharply deteriorated while in ICE custody,” the group posted on Instagram.

A federal judge earlier this month ordered Saenz’s release this month after the detention center warden did not dispute claims her arrest was “arbitrary and capricious,” according to a Lookout report. U.S. District Judge Krissa M. Lanham, who was appointed to the bench by Democratic President Joe Biden, ruled that the government failed to follow its own regulations.

Related: Trans and nonbinary migrants file complaint over treatment at ICE detention facility

Related: Gay man says ICE is keeping his husband jailed even though they’ve agreed to leave the U.S.

The judge’s order focused on whether ICE followed its own detention procedures, rather than making findings on Saenz’s broader allegations of mistreatment in custody.

The 26-year-old said she faced constant discrimination based on her transgender identity and endured violence and sexual harassment in custody.

Saenz was born in Colombia but fled because of violence and arrived in the United States by land in 2024. She requested asylum after crossing the border and turning herself in to Border Patrol.

In her asylum claim, Saenz said she endured persecution, enslavement, and repeated rape in Colombia and was at one point kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the leftist guerrilla group long involved in Colombia’s armed conflict. The gang is designated by the U.S. State Department as a foreign terrorist organization.