DHS cancels 'another gender' option on immigration applications

Homeland Security’s citizenship agency on Wednesday said it removed its “another gender” option from immigration forms, reversing a Biden policy and once again leaving applicants to pick between “male” and “female.”

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it was carrying out President Trump’s executive orders and returning to its own traditional practice, which until the Biden change last year had recognized only two sexes.

“There are only two sexes — male and female,” said Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary at Homeland Security, who said the new policy is a recognition of “simple biological reality.”

“Proper management of our immigration system is a matter of national security, not a place to promote and coddle an ideology that permanently harms children and robs real women of their dignity, safety and well-being,” Ms. McLaughlin said.

The move comes almost a year to the day after the Biden administration added an “X” option to the sex section of USCIS forms. That, the agency said, meant the applicant adhered to “another gender identity” beyond male or female.

The agency at the time said the lack of a nonbinary choice created “significant barriers” to some applicants, forcing them to take additional steps and submit extra documentation if their gender identity wasn’t clear and consistent from birth.

On Wednesday, the agency said that policy undermined the need for “a meaningful and useful basis for identification.”

For starters, the agency has canceled use of the term “gender” in its policy manual and replaced it with “sex.”

And under the new policy, USCIS will consider a person’s sex to be what was listed on his or her original birth certificate. If that’s missing, the agency will look to “secondary evidence” to make a determination.

USCIS said it won’t deny people just because they fail to check “M” or “F” on the forms or check a box that’s not consistent with their original birth certificate.