Rep. Al Green, Democrat of Texas, stood behind a podium in Houston on Thursday and read aloud from a letter he'd written to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. The subject wasn't border security. It wasn't the fentanyl crisis. It wasn't the backlog of immigration cases clogging the courts. It was hormone therapy for transgender illegal immigrants in ICE custody.
He held a dedicated press conference for this. Podium, microphones, the whole production.
Green's letter expressed what he called "deep concern over reports of hazardous conditions for transgender immigrants" in federal detention. Specifically, he claimed the federal government had "halted the provision of specialized medical care for transgender detainees in at least 10 detention centers across the nation." The Trump administration had also ended a Biden-era policy that reserved separate detention units for transgender women.
Green wasn't alone at the podium. He was flanked by the Houston LGBTQ+ Political Caucus and representatives from the Montrose Center, a Houston-based advocacy group. Daron Perez, the TransWellness program coordinator at the Montrose Center, told reporters, "Transgender immigrants should not have to wonder, 'Will I receive my hormones? Will my identity be respected? Will I be safe?'" He added, "Being detained should never mean losing your dignity, your safety, or access to necessary medical care."
Then Green delivered the line that deserves to be framed and hung in the Smithsonian's exhibit on congressional priorities. "In this country, if we can provide aid and comfort to the bank robber, to the person who's engaged in mortal combat with Americans, we surely can provide aid and comfort to persons who have committed no crimes, who are in the care, custody, and control of the government."
Persons who have committed no crimes. These are people in ICE detention. They are there because they entered or remained in the country illegally. That is, by definition, a violation of federal immigration law. Green compared their situation to enemy combatants receiving medical care on the battlefield, apparently not noticing that the comparison makes his own argument sound worse, not better. We treat wounded enemies so they can face justice. We don't rearrange the field hospital around their personal preferences.
Green also told reporters that "medical attention should not be denied any person, especially because of who you happen to be." Nobody is arguing that ICE detainees should be denied medical care. The question is whether hormone therapy — an elective, ongoing regimen — constitutes emergency medical treatment that American taxpayers are obligated to fund for people who are in custody precisely because they broke immigration law. Green skipped that distinction entirely, as reported by Louder with Crowder and Breitbart.
The press conference happened on September 11. While the rest of the country was marking twenty-five years since the worst terrorist attack on American soil, a sitting congressman from Houston's 9th District was at a podium demanding ICE become an endocrinology clinic.
Somewhere in that district, a veteran is waiting nine months for a VA appointment. But the congressman found a podium.
