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BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Women taken into custody by U.S. immigration agents while pregnant say they received inadequate care in a letter Wednesday that calls on the Trump administration to stop holding expectant mothers in federal detention facilities.
The letter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is part of a broader campaign in recent months by Democrats and immigrant rights groups to draw attention to what they say is the mistreatment of pregnant women who have been detained in Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The Department of Homeland Security has defended the care given to pregnant detainees, saying they are given regular prenatal visits and nutritional support. The agency did not immediately provide figures on the number of pregnant women in detention, as Democrats have demanded.
The letter sent by the American Civil Liberties Union gives accounts from pregnant women who say they were shackled while being transported, placed in solitary confinement for multiple days and given insufficient food and water while held in detention facilities in Louisiana and Georgia.
The ACLU said that over the past five months it has met with more than a dozen females who were pregnant while in ICE custody — including some who had a miscarriage while detained. The women reported “gravely troubling experiences,” the letter states, including lack of translation during medical encounters and medical neglect. One suffered a “severe” infection after her miscarriage.
In an interview with The Associated Press, one of those woman said she was kept in handcuffs while being transported to Louisiana — a journey that lasted five hours and spanned two plane rides. The woman, who has since been released from custody and given birth, spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of facing retaliation during her ongoing case.
An officer told her he considered taking off the handcuffs but worried she would escape. “How am I going to escape if I’m pregnant?” the woman said she responded.
She said she felt as if she’d been kidnapped and experienced dizziness, nausea and suffered from vaginal bleeding. During her time in the detention facility, she said pregnant women were not offered special diets and described the food as horrible. She alleged that detainees had to “beg” for water and toilet paper.
The ACLU’s letter is the latest call for an investigation into the arrest and treatment of pregnant detainees.
Senate Democrats wrote Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in September, expressing concerns about the “prevalence and treatment” of pregnant, postpartum and nursing women in ICE custody and demanded that the agency stop detaining such people unless there are “exceptional circumstances.”
Democratic lawmakers have also said information about the number of pregnant women in ICE custody has been difficult to ascertain.
DHS has said that pregnant detainees receive regular prenatal visits, mental health services, nutritional support, and accommodations “aligned with community standards of care.”
“Detention of pregnant women is rare and has elevated oversight and review,” the agency said in an August press release.
___ Gonzalez reported from McAllen, Texas.
