THE trans daughter of a leading Trump politician has fled Texas to seek asylum in Spain in fear that she could be branded a terrorist under a severe new federal crackdown.
If successful, it would be the first time a US citizen has won asylum abroad.
Kate Isett, 36, has lodged a formal application with immigration authorities after escaping what she describes as a ‘systematic campaign of hostility’ against transgender people in America.
It comes during an unprecedented wave of US citizens seeking refuge in Europe citing the ‘oppressive’ environment in the country under Donald Trump’s second term.
Isett is the daughter of Carl Isett, a prominent former Republican Texas State Representative and high-ranking Navy officer.
And it is her father – who now works as a corporate lobbyist for Trump – who has ultimately forced her out.
She was already worried after the US President signed a memorandum to investigate networks linked to ‘extremism on migration, race, and gender’ in September last year.
She believed she had become a target as she had just set up a charity to help other trans people navigate what she describes as the ‘deteriorating’ social environment in the US.
“As the leader of an organisation that supports trans and queer individuals would it mean I’m now the leader of a domestic terrorist organisation?” she told The Olive Press.
“It is crazy that I could be seen as a terrorist for wanting to help people.”
Working at the University of Texas in early 2025, she watched as an overhaul of the university’s leadership dismantled protections for trans staff.
It included banning pronoun displays on name badges and forcing her to use the male toilets, where she says she suffered verbal and physical abuse.
Working as a catering coordinator, she was then subjected to a persistent campaign of stalking and sexual harassment by a male kitchen worker.
It took the university authorities over a month and multiple complaints before taking any action.
She resigned and, after scraping together emergency funds, left the country in December to come to Barcelona.
But even leaving proved complicated under new rules introduced during Trump’s second term.
Federal rules now require all new US passports to reflect the sex assigned at birth, meaning those who have legally updated their gender markers on documents face mismatched paperwork that blocks them from obtaining a passport.
To avoid being trapped, Isett left using a passport that still bears a male gender marker.
In Barcelona, her case was taken on by a veteran immigration lawyer with decades of experience handling refugees from conflict zones across Africa and Eastern Europe.
Isett was his first American client, which came as a major shock for him.
During a three-hour interview at a Barcelona Policia Nacional station, Isett says caseworkers were so visibly shocked by her account they ‘openly compared them to the Gestapo’.
Her application was registered on February 12, this year.
Unable to work, surviving on savings and a GoFundMe campaign, she told The Olive Press she is ‘simply existing’ in Barcelona, but at least without fear.
“I feel safe and visible here,” she said. “I can walk around the streets and not a single soul really pays attention to me, whereas in Texas people would stop, stare, and think clearly; ‘what is that thing?'”
While she is waiting for answers, the procedure is being carefully followed by immigration lawyers around the country.
One Barcelona firm, Marfour International, whose clients are 80% American, confirmed it has received inquiries from other American transgender individuals ‘who feel more secure and supported in Spain’.
Their fears are grounded in documents published on the White House’s own website.
The 2026 US Counterterrorism Strategy explicitly groups ‘violent political groups whose ideology is anti-American [and] radically pro-transgender’ alongside cartels and Islamist terror groups.
The concern is not limited to those fleeing the USA.
The UK, Germany, Finland, Ireland, France and Denmark have all issued formal travel advisories warning their transgender citizens of the risks of travelling to the US.
Isett knows she is up against it – no American asylum claim has ever been accepted anywhere in the world.
But she is adamant: “In no way do I see myself returning to the United States.”
Carl Isett was contacted for comment.
Send your comments to newsdesk@theolivepress.es
Click here to read more International Affairs News from The Olive Press.
