In her country of El Salvador, where she worked as a health promoter, Victoria Castro faced regular harassment, verbal abuse, and threats of rape and murder. “It was because of the violence that I suffered in El Salvador and the constant threat of death, including being raped and almost murdered for being a trans woman, that I decided to leave,” said Castro, who spoke with the Observer through an interpreter. “I was beaten up all over my body, I had bruises, and was even shot in the shoulder.” After an especially violent attack left her in the hospital, Castro decided to seek asylum in the United States. But things would get worse before they’d get better.
After making the harrowing 2,100-mile journey to the U.S.-Mexico border, Castro was detained at the El Paso Processing Center in January 2017. She said that officials had her sign an agreement stating that she’d eventually be transferred to a facility in Santa Ana, California, where there were allegedly staff members trained to work with transgender detainees. She spent the next three months locked up in three different facilities.
In El Paso, Castro was placed in solitary confinement to protect her from other inmates. According to the National Center for Transgender Equality, 23 percent of trans inmates are physically assaulted in jail or prison. Trans people also face nine times the risk of sexual assault by fellow inmates.
