An official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Tuesday defended the agency’s treatment of transgender people who are in its custody.

Andrew Lorenzen-Strait, the openly gay deputy assistant director of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Custody Programs, during an interview with the Washington Blade at ICE headquarters in Southwest Washington noted a 2015 memorandum that then-ICE Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations Thomas Homan signed.

Lorenzen-Strait spoke with the Blade less than seven months after Roxsana Hernández, a trans woman from Honduras with HIV, died in ICE custody.

The directive requires personnel to allow trans detainees to identify themselves based on their gender identity on data forms. It also contains, among other things, guidelines for a “respectful, safe and secure environment” for trans detainees and requires detention facilities to provide them with access to hormone therapy and other trans-specific health care. Read more via Washington Blade