Alongside minors, older people, and the medically unwell, women are among the most vulnerable of immigration detainee groups, the majority having experienced gendered persecution and trauma before confronting further harm in detention. The detention of migrant women who have committed no crime is condemned by various policy actors and activists for being discriminatory, often brutal, and at odds with human and equal rights principles. Drawing on the combined methods of process tracing, policy content analysis and critical frame analysis, this chapter explores the tension between the British state’s acceptance that “civilized” government must commit to gender equality in public policy, on one hand, and the drive to restrict the entry of racialized Others, on the other hand. This tension reveals the unwillingness or inability of British political institutions and decision-makers, steeped in colonial thinking, to uphold and incorporate principles of equality, justice and non-discrimination into immigration law and its implementation. The chapter concludes that the encounter between gender equality policy and institutional gendered racism results at best in gender-neutral/blind immigration detention policy.