How the Prison Rape Elimination Act Helps LGBT Immigrants in Detention

More than a decade after Congress passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act, or PREA, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, published standards to prevent, detect, and respond to sexual abuse and assault in immigration detention facilities. A congressional mandate requires Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to detain 34,000 immigrants every day who may be subject to removal under immigration law. The 249 facilities in which ICE holds immigrants are currently covered by a patchwork of standards, and prior to the establishment of the PREA standards in March, no one standard bound all facilities.