MENG CALLS ON SEC. NOEM TO ADDRESS ACCESS TO MENSTRUAL PRODUCTS AT DHS FACILITIES

November 24, 2025
Press Release

Letter calls for answers following reports of detainees being denied basic hygiene products

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY), a member of the House Appropriations Committee, announced today that she sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to demand answers about recent reports of women unable to access or outright denied menstrual products in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities.
 
The letter comes in response to a number of recent incidents where detainees at Department of Homeland Security (DHS) facilities across the country have been denied menstrual products, raising serious concerns about whether DHS is following standards for the treatment of detainees.
 
“The news reports and lawsuits detailing how female detainees in ICE facilities across the United States are being held in unsafe and unhygienic conditions are deeply troubling,” said Congresswoman Meng. "Accounts of detainees being forced to wear blood-soaked clothing, unable to shower, and made to share toilets with men are appalling. No one should be subject to these dangerous and dehumanizing conditions. I am demanding answers from Secretary Noem and the Department of Homeland Security on what actions they are taking to ensure detainees are treated with dignity, humanity, and in full accordance with the law.”
 
Access to menstrual products is a basic standard of care that all DHS detention facilities must uphold. Current standards for ICE facilities and non-dedicated facilities require that detainees be provided “sufficient feminine hygiene items” and that the facilities replenish them on an as-needed basis. The United States Marshals Service’s Federal Performance-Based Detention Standards, which apply to U.S. Marshals’ facilities where ICE contracts beds, require that articles “for maintaining proper personal hygiene are available to all detainees.” Additionally, federal law—specifically, the First Step Act, which Congress passed on a bipartisan basis and President Trump signed into law in 2018—requires the Bureau of Prisons, which is now holding ICE detainees in several facilities throughout the United States, to ensure free access to tampons and sanitary napkins “in a quantity that is appropriate to the healthcare needs of each prisoner.”
 
The letter demands answers to the following questions:
  1. How does DHS address the variability in detention standards across different facilities to ensure uniform access to hygiene products for detainees?
  2. How does DHS monitor supplies of menstrual products and the frequency of replenishment in ICE facilities?
  3. How are ICE facility staff trained to respond to detainees who request menstrual products?
  4. What specific steps does DHS take to address deficiencies in facilities that are out of compliance with the department’s detention standards?
     
The letter was signed by 21 Members of Congress, including Representatives Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ), André Carson (D-IN), Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), Madeleine Dean (D-PA), Valerie Foushee (D-NC), Robert Garcia (D-CA), Daniel Goldman (D-NY), Henry Johnson (D-GA), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), Dave Min (D-CA), Seth Moulton (D-MA), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Eleanor Norton (D-DC), Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Melanie Stansbury (D-NM), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Norma Torres (D-CA), and Nydia Velázquez (D-NY).
 
A copy can be viewed here.