A group of 35 Democratic members of Congress, including Rep. Alan Lowenthal of Long Beach, urged the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday to end the practice of detaining immigrants who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

In a letter to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, the members said detention “should almost never be used for vulnerable groups such as LGBT immigrants facing immigration proceedings.” Instead, they asked officials to use parole or other alternatives to ensure the safety of immigrants in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Individuals who identify as LGBT are “extremely vulnerable to abuse, including sexual assault, while in custody, particularly transgender women housed in men’s detention facilities,” the 35 Democrats wrote.

The news was welcomed by immigrant rights advocates in Orange County, who last month staged a protest in Santa Ana to demand an end to the detention of transgender undocumented immigrants who are in custody while they await immigration court proceedings. The Santa Ana Jail houses a separate area for LGBT inmates.

“It comes at a very important time, when detention conditions for this community are coming to the forefront and gaining a lot of attention from the public,” said Hairo Cortes, a spokesman with the Orange County Immigrant Youth United, a local undocumented immigrant youth-led organization.

Non-heterosexual detainees are sexually assaulted at up to 10 times the rate of heterosexual men, according to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics. And one in three transgender detainees is sexually abused within 12 months in custody.

Transgender immigrants reported 20 percent of the sexual assaults in ICE custody, even though they accounted for less than 1 percent of the general population, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office in November 2013, which the members cited in their letter.

“You keep people in detention if they are a high risk,” said Lowenthal, whose district includes Garden Grove, Westminster, Los Alamitos and other Orange County communities. “The data now indicates not only are they the most vulnerable of the vulnerable, they don’t pose a danger to the community.”

For immigrant-rights supporters, ending the detention of LGBT immigrants is a first step toward ending all detentions of undocumented immigrants. Advocates plan a national campaign on the issue beginning July 7, including events in Orange County.

Some opponents of illegal immigration don’t believe undocumented residents should get a free pass because they’re under the LGBT umbrella.

“The bottom line is they chose to come here illegally. They shouldn’t be in our country. They are here breaking the law. If anybody has particular issues or difficulties, we should address it. But bottom line, they shouldn’t even be here,” said Betty Robinson, a Tustin resident and member of several conservative organizations, including the Claremont-based We the People Rising.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7829 or rkopetman@ocregister.com