President Donald Trump’s administration has vanished another inconvenient fact: the number of transgender people in immigration detention.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement quietly stopped reporting how many transgender people it keeps locked up in February, as the total population of immigrants in detention soared and the agency rescinded protections for trans people.

The move follows Trump’s executive order in January to essentially stop recognizing that trans people exist. According to the nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice, it appears to run afoul of a congressional mandate to report how many transgender and other vulnerable people are being kept in immigration detention.

The move has complicated advocates’ efforts to keep trans immigrants safe behind bars, where they face a heightened risk of violence and medical neglect.

“It’s part and parcel of a larger effort to really erase trans people,” said Bridget Crawford, the director of law and policy for the nonprofit advocacy group Immigration Equality. “They are not even willing to try to track the trans population, despite the congressional mandate.”

Her group........

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