A detained migrant woman arrived at a shelter feeling frustrated and isolated among about 70 women sleeping on mats under lights that stayed on all day and night. She noticed a very young, quiet pregnant woman with a protruding belly and felt sorry for her. The pregnant woman, seven months along, suffered nausea, headaches, dizziness, and hunger that the center’s limited meals could not satisfy. She was also barred from receiving money from family to supplement food. After living in New York for years, she became afraid under a deportation-focused immigration climate and returned to her birthplace. Later she attempted to come back, traveling through Mexico and crossing from Juarez, where agents detained her after she reached the other side.
"There were about 70 women inside, sleeping on mats with barely any space, under unsettling lights that stayed on 24 hours a day. Mogollon felt sorry for the young woman. I told her: girl, if you want, sit on this side because they won't trample you there. They began to get to know each other, to tell each other their lives."
"Maria Jose Carpio, 20, was seven months pregnant and suffering from nausea, headaches, dizziness, and a hunger that the center's foodan egg sandwich in the mornings, or cold burritos and apples at lunchcould not satisfy. They were also not allowed to receive money from family members to supplement their diet. We felt bad seeing her go hungry, says Mogollon, 36."
"Carpio had arrived in the United States on a visa six years earlier with her parents and two sisters from Cuenca, Ecuador. They settled in Queens. Carpio attended school and worked in a gift shop. I had my own money, my things, she says. But by 2025, undocumented people in New York began to live under a shadow of fear, as did millions elsewhere in the country."
"I got quite scared, the young woman admits. She couldn't take it, and returned to the place where she had been born. But in April 2026, Carpio wanted to come back to New York. She made a journey that took her to Mexico, and on April 11 of that month she set out to cross the border from Juarez. Once she was on the other side, agents showed up behind her."
#immigration-detention #pregnancy-and-maternal-health #food-insecurity #deportation-fear #migrant-shelters
Read at english.elpais.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]