The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is moving forward with plans to transfer transgender inmates from facilities that align with their gender identity to those that correspond to their sex at birth. These moves could commence as early as next week, according to federal inmates and a source familiar with the policy who spoke with NewsDirectory3 on condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal.

This shift means transgender women currently housed in women’s facilities will be moved to men’s facilities, and vice versa. The moves are expected to impact trans inmates regardless of whether they have undergone any gender transition surgery.

This policy change has been anticipated with serious concern by many in the trans and legal communities since President Trump signed an executive order in January 2025. The order pushed the BOP to implement such a move, stating that the federal government recognizes only two sexes, male and female. This directive has been challenged in court, but the rulings have only protected the individuals named in the suits, not the broader population of trans inmates within the federal prison system.

The Move is Already Being Challenged

A lawsuit filed late Friday afternoon by a dozen transgender women inmates is attempting to block the BOP from moving the federal prison system’s trans population. “If transferred, these people, some of who are post-surgery, would be at an incredibly high risk of assault,” said Kara Janssen, the lawyer representing the incarcerated plaintiffs.

Trump’s executive order — which states that the federal government recognizes only two sexes, male and female — “provides no room for individualized determinations or discretion, does nothing to further safety and security, and these continued attempts to transfer people and put them in direct harm appear to be motivated by nothing more than hate and cruelty towards this population,” she said in an email to NewsDirectory3.

Kara Janssen

The BOP has not responded to questions from NewsDirectory3. The agency has not made information about its new policy publicly available, nor has it publicly announced the planned moves. The plaintiffs, named in the lawsuit using pseudonyms with their locations redacted, are currently housed in women’s facilities but are slated to be transferred.

The lawsuit states that after weeks of being warned they would be moved imminently, the women were told on Thursday that they were officially on the list to be transferred to a men’s prison, where their hormone treatments would be cut off. On Friday, the women were removed from the general population of their prison into segregated housing.

The women fear sexual assault and other abuses if they were to be moved, the lawsuit says, in part because some of the women had been assaulted when previously housed in men’s facilities.

For years, the BOP applied an individual assessment to determine the appropriate housing for each transgender inmate, taking into account an individual’s safety and security as well as compliance with the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). This process was in place until Trump’s executive order was signed on Jan. 20, 2025. As it relates to trans inmates, the order was successfully challenged in court in two cases where the inmates sued to block the new rules. In one of those lawsuits, for example, a federal judge on Feb. 4 temporarily blocked the transfer of three transgender women plaintiffs to a men’s facility. However, those rulings only protected the individuals named in the suits, not the rest of the population of trans inmates within the federal prison system.

Prisons Told to Prepare for Moves

As the BOP hopes to follow through with their plans as soon as next week, conference calls with prison officials, prison psychologists, and others across the country have been held multiple times in the past few days, said the source familiar with the agency’s plans. The source told NewsDirectory3 that the BOP was expecting a lawsuit and for a possible court order blocking the moves, but intended to go ahead with the plan anyway. Officials at individual prisons won’t begin moving people until they receive the go-ahead from the BOP, the source said, and it’s unclear when that would happen. The bureau is well aware of concerns about potential risks of assault, sexual violence, and suicides, which have been raised by officials, according to the source.

Efforts are being made at at least one prison to prepare specialized housing units for trans inmates to prevent abuse and assault, the source said, and each individual’s security level generally is being considered — for example, an inmate at a low-security prison would only be moved to another low-security federal facility.

AJ Diciesare, a transgender man who is currently housed in a women’s prison, does not expect to be moved because his facility corresponds to his assigned sex at birth. But he told NewsDirectory3 he’s fearful of what these efforts targeting trans inmates mean for him and others. He’s been taking hormones for years and said he worries those will soon be taken away.

“It’s not just a physical withdrawal. It’s mental anguish,” he said, describing how he has felt when he has been taken off the medication.

AJ Diciesare

He’s tried to get definitive answers from prison officials on what is happening next, but he’s heard nothing. “That’s building anguish,” he said.

He said he has spoken to the trans women in his prison and has seen fear on their faces ever since they were told that the BOP plans to move them to male facilities next week. Two women he spoke to are considered to have fully undergone the gender-affirming process, including surgeries, Diciesare said. They are still on the list to be moved.

“I understand we broke laws. However, we are still humans. We are still people,” Diciesare said.

AJ Diciesare

Lauren McGaughy from KUT/The Texas Newsroom contributed to this report.