Rep. Al Green already told Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to shut up during a congressional hearing.
Now Green wants Mullin to hand over something DHS says taxpayers will never fund for illegal aliens.
Green stood at a podium last week and compared illegal aliens to bank robbers to make his case.
The Comparison Green Chose to Make in Public
Texas Democrat Al Green held a press conference demanding that Homeland Security provide gender transition hormones to illegal aliens held in ICE custody.
Green read from a letter he wrote to Secretary Mullin.
He claimed transgender detainees face "hazardous conditions" because the agency won't supply the hormones.
Then Green reached for his comparison.
"If we can provide aid and comfort to the bank robber, to the person who's engaged in mortal combat with Americans, we surely can provide aid and comfort to persons who have committed no crimes," Green said.
Read that sentence again.
A sitting congressman just argued that illegal aliens deserve the same taxpayer-funded medical extras as violent criminals fighting American troops.
That's not a gaffe – it's the entire Democrat worldview in one breath.
Green wasn't finished.
He insisted denying the hormones amounts to punishing detainees for being transgender, not for being in the country illegally in the first place.
The Montrose Center's TransWellness coordinator joined him at the podium and framed hormone access as a matter of "dignity" and "safety."
Not once did anyone at that podium say the word "illegal."
DHS Already Answered This Fight Once This Year
Homeland Security has heard this demand before, and the department didn't blink.
When The New York Times pushed a similar story earlier this year, DHS fired back immediately.
"We are NOT wasting U.S. taxpayer dollars to provide hormone therapy to illegal aliens seeking to change their sex," the department said.
That policy reversal ended an Obama-era standard that let some transgender detainees keep receiving hormones they were already taking.
The Obama rule dated back to 2011, when ICE first wrote "gender self-identification" screening into its detention manual.
A Republican congressman called it a "hospitality guideline for illegal immigrants" back then too.
Fourteen years later, the argument hasn't changed – only the administration answering it has.
Trump's DHS scrubbed the Obama-era policy from its website in February 2025.
The number of transgender detainees affected was already small – roughly 47 as of this year, by the agency's last public count.
Green wants that policy rewritten anyway, and he wants Mullin personally to do it.
The Bill Nobody at the Podium Wants to Mention
Nobody at Green's press conference put a dollar figure on the table.
A Daily Wire estimate puts the Obama-era hormone therapy bill for detainees alone at several hundred thousand taxpayer dollars.
That same estimate says the full price tag balloons past ten million once you add in the illegal aliens who received similar treatment while living free in sanctuary cities.
That's real money that could have paid for Border Patrol overtime, a new detention bed, or a mile of fencing.
Instead, on that estimate, it paid for estrogen and testosterone for people who weren't supposed to be inside U.S. borders receiving it.
Funny how "dignity" and "safety" always seem to cost taxpayers something, and the bill always lands on somebody else's desk.
Green Picked the Same Fight With Mullin Twice
Here's what fires me up about this one: Al Green isn't asking for mercy, he's asking for an upgrade.
Illegal aliens who broke immigration law get a bank robber's comparison as their moral defense, straight from a member of Congress.
Green spent his time this year already trying to bully Mullin, telling him to "shut up" during a funding hearing before storming into this press conference with a new demand.
That's not concern for detainees – that's a pattern.
Every time Republicans hold the line on a border policy, a Democrat shows up with a press conference designed to make the line sound cruel.
Mullin doesn't need a letter to answer this one.
DHS already gave its answer once this year, and it was one sentence long: taxpayers aren't funding it.
Green can keep writing letters.
Mullin can keep cashing the political capital that comes from telling him no.
Sources:
- Michael Austin, "Rep. Al Green Demands Hormones for Transgender Illegals in ICE Detention," The Western Journal, September 16, 2026.
- Jennie Taer, "Trump Stops Giving Hormones To Trans-Identifying Illegal Immigrants In ICE Detention," The Daily Wire, 2026.
- Staff, "How To Win The ICE Battle," The Daily Wire, 2026.
- Staff, "ICE Guidelines Call for Taxpayer-Funded Transgender Hormone Treatments for Some Detainees," Fox News.
- Staff, "Rep. Al Green Tells Homeland Security Sec. Mullin to Shut Up," Fox News.
