Classification and Coercion: The Gendered Punishment of Transgender Women in Immigration Detention.

This article examines the experiences of transgender women immigrants detained in U.S. immigration facilities, focusing on how institutional classification practices contribute to gendered forms of punishment. Drawing on interviews with thirteen transgender women and a survey of fifty-five transgender women migrants, the study finds that although detainees can be officially classified as transgender for housing and immigration relief purposes, this recognition often results in punitive outcomes such as isolation, denial of gender-affirming medical care, misgendering, and exposure to violence. The authors argue that the immigration detention system operates on a rigid two-sex/two-gender model rooted in cisnormative assumptions, which marginalizes transgender women despite policy changes like the 2015 Obama administration guidance. The paper concludes that adding transgender categories without transforming the underlying organizational culture and classification practices fails to address entrenched gender inequalities and perpetuates harm against transgender detainees.