Tucson Sentinel: Advocates call for release of some LGBT asylum-seekers

In a letter dated June 23, a group of 35 Congressional Democrats wrote to Department of Homeland of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson urging him to change current detention policies for LGBT people. Included on the correspondence were the signatures of U.S. Reps. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth and Al Green, D-Houston.

"Detention should almost never be used for vulnerable groups such as LGBT immigrants facing immigration proceedings," the letter said. "Recent surveys of jails and prisons by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that non-heterosexual detainees experience sexual assault at up to ten times the rate of heterosexual men. The situation is starker for transgender detainees."