ICE Tried to Tweet in Support of the LGBTQ Community for Pride—and It Backfired Instantly

Since first established in 2003, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has faced opposition for the repeated human rights abuses toward undocumented immigrants in its detention facilities, as well as its tactics for apprehending undocumented immigrants for deportation—some of whom have been here for decades.

For years, the agency has kept immigrants in unsafe and unsanitary conditions, overseen the separation of children and parents, and concealed outbreaks of the viral pathogen that's killed 600 thousand Americans.

Like countless other entities, ICE rolled out a tweet supporting its LGBTQ employees for LGBTQ Pride month.

While the Pride message focused on ICE's LGBTQ employees, the agency has routinely ignored the violence and atrocities committed against its LGBTQ prisoners.

LGBTQ immigrants in ICE detention centers—especially trans immigrants—are 97 times more likely to face sexual abuse than their fellow detainees. In 2017, 0.14 percent of ICE detainees self-identified as LGBTQ, but they accounted for 12 percent of sexual assault victims in these facilities.

ICE has frequently put trans women immigrants into men's detention facilities, or put them in solitary confinement for extended periods of time. One trans woman died in ICE custody, and officials deleted video footage of her to cover its tracks. It's also frequently denied medication to HIV positive detainees.

The agency's routine indifference to the trauma of its LGBTQ detainees, and its repeated assault on the human rights of immigrants made its Pride message hollow at best and offensive at worst.

People quickly brought receipts on the agency's atrocities.

There are growing calls for ICE to be abolished.