Pregnant immigrants held for months in detention despite rules against it

"Lorena Pineda was five months pregnant when masked agents picked her up on a street corner near a San Fernando Home Depot in June. An agent grabbed her from the vending stand she ran with her sister-in-law and put her against a car. "Be careful," she told him. "I'm pregnant." "Don't think I am going to let you go because of that," she recalled him saying. Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy states agents shouldn't detain, arrest or hold pregnant, postpartum and nursing mothers for "administrative violation of immigration laws" barring "exceptional circumstances" or if their release is "prohibited by law.""

"But pregnant women are increasingly picked up, deported and detained under the Trump administration, advocates and lawyers contend. Pineda, 27, was held at a downtown L.A. processing center before being transferred to San Bernardino, flown to Atlanta and then to a staging facility in Alexandria, La., and then taken on an hours-long ride to a rural part of that state - where for 3½ months she watched her belly grow and her dreams of life in America fade."

"The American Civil Liberties Union has documented more than a dozen cases of what it says are pregnant women housed without proper medical care at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Ga., and the ICE processing center in Basile, La., where Pineda was held. In one case, a woman was shackled while she miscarried. Another woman with a high-risk pregnancy was placed in solitary confinement. In other instances, women have been denied prenatal care or not given translation services to speak with medical staff. Some complained that their pleas for medical services were ignored for weeks, according to the ACLU."

A five-months-pregnant immigrant, Lorena Pineda, was arrested near a San Fernando Home Depot and transferred through multiple processing centers before being held in rural Louisiana for 3½ months. ICE policy prohibits detaining pregnant, postpartum and nursing mothers for administrative immigration violations except in exceptional circumstances or when release is prohibited by law. The ACLU documented more than a dozen cases of pregnant detainees lacking proper medical care, including instances of shackling during miscarriage, solitary confinement for high-risk pregnancies, denial of prenatal care, lack of translation for medical staff, and ignored medical pleas for weeks.

Read at Los Angeles Times