Rep. Al Green, Democrat of Texas, stood at a podium on September 10 in Houston and read aloud from a letter he'd written to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. The subject was not the border. Not fentanyl. Not the cost of detention. The congressman's urgent concern was that ICE had stopped providing hormone treatments to transgender illegal immigrants in federal custody.
He held an entire press conference for it.
Green's letter expressed what he called "deep concern over reports of hazardous conditions for transgender immigrants" and stated that "in recent months, the federal government has halted the provision of specialized medical care for transgender detainees in at least 10 detention centers across the nation." Standing alongside him were representatives from the Houston LGBTQ+ Political Caucus and the Montrose Center, a Houston-based organization whose TransWellness program coordinator, Daron Perez, delivered a line that tells you everything about the priorities in the room: "Transgender immigrants should not have to wonder: Will I receive my hormones? Will my identity be respected? Will I be safe?"
The specific case driving the press conference involves Sam Rivas, described as a transgender Latino community leader currently in ICE detention. Rivas reportedly requested testosterone as part of ongoing medical care. Officials offered a clinic contact but made no promises. That, apparently, warranted a formal congressional press event.
Green offered a comparison that deserves to be read twice. "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." Persons who have committed no crimes. The people in question are in ICE detention specifically because they entered the country illegally. That is, by definition, a crime. The congressman's own analogy refuted his own argument before he finished the sentence.
The Trump administration had ended a Biden-era policy that reserved separate detention units for transgender women in ICE facilities. Green framed this as cruelty. The policy change means transgender detainees are housed according to biological sex or placed in protective custody — the same standard applied in federal and state prisons across the country. What Green is demanding isn't equal treatment. It's preferential treatment, funded by taxpayers, for people who aren't authorized to be in the country.
The reaction from Green's own Texas constituents was immediate. "It is not life sustaining care. Dumb waste of taxpayer money," one wrote. Another: "Are you kidding? THIS is what a Texas Congressman is worried about?" A third: "I don't want to pay for that. I'm a citizen and should choose where my money goes."
Green, who recently lost his seat, represents an area of Houston where the median household income sits well below the national average. His constituents include veterans waiting months for VA appointments, seniors choosing between prescriptions and groceries, and working families watching insurance premiums climb every year. Those people didn't get a press conference.
The congressman had a podium, a microphone, and the full attention of the Houston press corps. He could have talked about anything. He chose hormone therapy for people in the country illegally. "Medical attention should not be denied any person," Green said. Nobody denied anyone medical attention. ICE provides medical care to every detainee. The question is whether American taxpayers should fund elective hormone treatments that most Americans can't get their own insurance to cover.
A sitting United States congressman looked at the full menu of crises facing his district and his state and decided the most urgent item was testosterone prescriptions for detained illegal immigrants. His constituents noticed.
