A Trans Woman Is in ICE Custody After Trying to Grab Water

A transgender woman has been placed into an all-male deportation facility after she stood on Phoenix light rail platform without a ticket which some are calling "nothing short of torture."

Activists are calling for the release of Naomi Rosales Ramirez after she was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody on July 5. According to Sephanie Figgins, a spokeswoman for the group Trans Queer Publo, Ramirez Rosalses was on the platform to grab a drink of water from a water fountain.

"On July 6, ICE took custody of Francisco Javier Ramirez-Perez, a.k.a., Naomi Rosales-Ramirez, an illegal alien from Mexico, pursuant to a detainer lodged with the Maricopa County Jail (MCJ) on July 5." said ICE spokeswoman Yasmeen Pitts O'Keefe, according toArizona Mirror. "Previously, Ramirez-Perez was repatriated to Mexico in 2005. Ramirez-Perez will remain in ICE custody pending a decision by an immigration judge with the Executive Office for Immigration Review."

La Palma Correctional Center is owned by CoreCivic, a private prison company that contracts with federal immigration enforcement. Last July the company announced La Palma would begin exclusively housing adult ICE detainees, but did not disclose whether they'd open the facility up to female migrants. Twenty-five percent of CoreCivic's revenue currently comes from ICE.

"We live in one of the hottest cities in the world. Do we really want to live in a Phoenix where getting a drink of water can land you in jail?" Figgins said on Thursday.

Ramirez Rosales' mother Maria Teresa Ramirez Rosales' expressed her concern on Monday saying that her daughter took care of her in December following a heart attack.

"She is my company. she is my caregiver," she said. "And I'm afraid of what might happen to her if she gets sent to Mexico, because of who she is."

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