Pregnant immigrants held for months in detention despite rules against it

[ad_1] Lorena Pineda was 5 months pregnant when masked brokers picked her up on a avenue nook close to a San Fernando House Depot in June.

An agent grabbed her from the merchandising stand she ran along with her sister-in-law and put her in opposition to a automotive. “Watch out,” she informed him. “I’m pregnant.”

“Don’t assume I'm going to allow you to go due to that,” she recalled him saying.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement coverage states brokers shouldn’t detain, arrest or maintain pregnant, postpartum and nursing moms for “administrative violation of immigration legal guidelines” barring “distinctive circumstances” or if their launch is “prohibited by legislation.”

<img class="image" alt="A woman holds her belly in a medical examination room." srcset="https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/95e97bf/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5000x3333+0+0/resize/320x213!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F04%2F40%2F77b735794880aa1a2e7b43c81a11%2F1526260-la-me-ice-detained-while-pregnant-kg-07.jpg 320w,https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/4730df4/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5000x3333+0+0/resize/568x379!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F04%2F40%2F77b735794880aa1a2e7b43c81a11%2F1526260-la-me-ice-detained-while-pregnant-kg-07.jpg 568w,https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/4365bce/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5000x3333+0+0/resize/768x512!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F04%2F40%2F77b735794880aa1a2e7b43c81a11%2F1526260-la-me-ice-detained-while-pregnant-kg-07.jpg 768w,https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/0006649/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5000x3333+0+0/resize/1024x683!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F04%2F40%2F77b735794880aa1a2e7b43c81a11%2F1526260-la-me-ice-detained-while-pregnant-kg-07.jpg 1024w,https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/13d2345/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5000x3333+0+0/resize/1200x800!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F04%2F40%2F77b735794880aa1a2e7b43c81a11%2F1526260-la-me-ice-detained-while-pregnant-kg-07.jpg 1200w" sizes="100vw" width="1200" height="800" src="https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/13d2345/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5000x3333+0+0/resize/1200x800!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F04%2F40%2F77b735794880aa1a2e7b43c81a11%2F1526260-la-me-ice-detained-while-pregnant-kg-07.jpg" decoding="async" loading="lazy"/> Lorena Pineda is checked by a physician in a clinic on Oct. 16, 2025.

(Karla Gachet / For The Occasions)

However pregnant ladies are more and more picked up, deported and detained below the Trump administration, advocates and attorneys contend.

Pineda, 27, was held at a downtown L.A. processing heart earlier than being transferred to San Bernardino, flown to Atlanta after which to a staging facility in Alexandria, La., after which taken on an hours-long trip to a rural a part of that state — the place for 3½ months she watched her stomach develop and her desires of life in America fade.

The American Civil Liberties Union has documented greater than a dozen circumstances of what it says are pregnant ladies housed with out correct medical care at Stewart Detention Heart in Lumpkin, Ga., and the ICE processing heart in Basile, La., the place Pineda was held.

In a single case, a lady was shackled whereas she miscarried. One other lady with a high-risk being pregnant was positioned in solitary confinement. In different cases, ladies have been denied prenatal care or not given translation providers to talk with medical workers. Some complained that their pleas for medical providers have been ignored for weeks, in line with the ACLU.

“That is solely the tip of the iceberg,” stated Eunice Cho, a lawyer with the ACLU and co-author of a letter despatched to performing ICE Director Todd Lyons in October asking that pregnant detainees be launched.

In keeping with Division of Homeland Safety spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, it's “exceedingly uncommon” for pregnant ladies to be in detention. Those that are, she stated, obtain “common prenatal visits, psychological well being providers, dietary assist, and lodging aligned with group requirements of care.”

It’s unclear simply what number of pregnant and postpartum ladies are in custody, as a result of a congressional mandate to semiannually report the quantity lapsed below the Republican-led Congress.

Attorneys across the nation have stated their pregnant shoppers have been held in dire circumstances. In California, Angie Rodriguez, an asylum seeker held within the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Heart in Bakersfield, miscarried in July. She has since been launched.

On the facility in Basile, Neysis Mairena was six months pregnant with twins when she was hospitalized after experiencing contractions final month and was shackled to a hospital mattress, stated her lawyer, Thea Crane.

These ladies, Cho stated, “have been ripped away from their households, transported to detention amenities which might be hundreds of miles away from their households, and so they’re sitting in detention in these horrifying circumstances — anxious not solely about their households at residence being deported, but additionally the well being and security of their pregnancies.”

McLaughlin famous that Pineda, Rodriguez and Mairena all had crossed the southern border within the final 5 years and have been “launched into the nation below the Biden administration.”

The medical care in detention, she stated, might be the “finest healthcare” that many immigrants have obtained of their life.

McLaughlin stated the ACLU’s findings don’t establish ladies by title and quantity to “nameless, unsubstantiated and unverifiable claims.”

“Pregnant ladies presently make up 0.133% of all unlawful aliens in custody,” she stated, including that they “are topic to elevated oversight.”

<img class="image" alt="A series of grainy photos." srcset="https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/8b65ed5/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3333x5000+0+0/resize/320x480!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F79%2Fd3%2Ffcfc49c14f81b26eb8ecbb1cd9ca%2F1526260-la-me-ice-detained-while-pregnant-kg-06.jpg 320w,https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/317aac0/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3333x5000+0+0/resize/568x852!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F79%2Fd3%2Ffcfc49c14f81b26eb8ecbb1cd9ca%2F1526260-la-me-ice-detained-while-pregnant-kg-06.jpg 568w,https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/a24b64c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3333x5000+0+0/resize/768x1152!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F79%2Fd3%2Ffcfc49c14f81b26eb8ecbb1cd9ca%2F1526260-la-me-ice-detained-while-pregnant-kg-06.jpg 768w,https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/d434c5d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3333x5000+0+0/resize/1024x1536!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F79%2Fd3%2Ffcfc49c14f81b26eb8ecbb1cd9ca%2F1526260-la-me-ice-detained-while-pregnant-kg-06.jpg 1024w,https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/d072f6d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3333x5000+0+0/resize/1200x1800!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F79%2Fd3%2Ffcfc49c14f81b26eb8ecbb1cd9ca%2F1526260-la-me-ice-detained-while-pregnant-kg-06.jpg 1200w" sizes="100vw" width="1200" height="1800" src="https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/d072f6d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3333x5000+0+0/resize/1200x1800!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F79%2Fd3%2Ffcfc49c14f81b26eb8ecbb1cd9ca%2F1526260-la-me-ice-detained-while-pregnant-kg-06.jpg" decoding="async" loading="lazy"/> Pineda reveals photos of her unborn child that have been taken throughout her time in custody.

(Karla Gachet / For The Occasions)

She added that “all tragic, 4 miscarriages occurred at South Louisiana ICE Processing Heart — that's 10% of the pregnant detainees and effectively beneath the nationwide common.”

McLaughlin stated Rodriguez didn’t even know she was pregnant when she was detained and set for expedited elimination.

Mairena, a Nicaraguan immigrant, was by no means shackled to a hospital mattress and had been arrested on allegations of cruelty to a juvenile, McLaughlin stated.

Crane, her lawyer, stated Mairena was accused of home abuse with little one endangerment as a result of her 7-year-old daughter was current throughout an altercation along with her companion. Crane is preventing these prices, saying Mairena was defending herself.

Mairena was launched from detention on Nov. 26, after The Occasions inquired about her case.

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After her arrest, Pineda spent greater than three months in a repurposed jail in Louisiana. The state has change into a hub for immigrant detention below the Trump administration.

She got here to know the opposite immigrant ladies housed in a big room lined with 54 beds and a tv droning most waking hours. The Salvadoran mom of two stated she felt her child develop inside her as the times handed and she or he settled right into a heartsore rhythm, bonding with strangers eager for kids, household and residential.

She counted at the least 20 different pregnant ladies on the facility. A few of these she met have been launched, Pineda stated; others have been rapidly deported.

One of many ladies, she recalled, was about 4 months pregnant when she miscarried twins. The girl cried and begged guards for days after to assist her get drugs to expel the fetuses — assist that didn't come earlier than Pineda left the ability.

One other pregnant lady she met was set to be deported, however officers held her and she or he wound up miscarrying. Eight days later, they deported her, she stated.

“Think about,” Pineda stated. “They waited till she misplaced the child earlier than deporting her.”

The circumstances on the facility have been tough. Guards yelled. The meals inside, she stated, have been principally junk meals. Scorching canine, spaghetti. The tales she heard rattled her.

One lady she met on the facility had been arrested leaving the hospital after having a C-section. She stated immigration officers finally deported her with out her little one, although they have been later reunited.

“I used to be afraid of one thing like this,” Pineda stated. “You don’t know what’s going to occur.” She was fearful of giving delivery in custody.

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The Girls’s Refugee Fee, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit, has been making an attempt to trace the variety of pregnant, postpartum and nursing moms detained by immigration brokers and doc the circumstances they face. Its leaders say they've encountered vital hurdles.

“We actually don’t know what is going on inside detention facilities,” stated Zain Lakhani, the fee’s director of migrant rights and justice.

With the reporting necessities eradicated and entry to amenities diminished after the administration ended many authorized applications contained in the amenities, it's onerous to get a real image. “We used to have the ability to converse with them after which escalate complaints, both to the workplace of civil rights and civil liberties or instantly, type of internally to the ability. We're not ready to do this.”

Since launching the tracker, she stated, the group has “obtained vital experiences of pregnant, postpartum, lactating ladies who're being detained,” although she was not keen to share figures. There’s additionally proof that ICE just isn't following coverage to offer sufficient housing, medical care and diet.

“These are extraordinarily weak populations that require specialised healthcare, that require a specialised diet and food plan,” Lakhani stated. “We all know very clearly from the entire medical pointers round being pregnant that you're somebody who wants to have the ability to go to a physician on a really common foundation. There are all types of routine and emergency, and simply pressing type of healthcare wants that you've.”

In July, an investigation spearheaded by Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) into human rights abuses in immigration detention discovered “14 credible experiences of mistreatment of pregnant ladies, and 18 credible experiences of mistreatment of kids.” The experiences included lack of sufficient medical care, well timed checkups or sufficient meals.

“The inhumane remedy of pregnant ladies by the administration is shameful,” the Democratic Girls’s Caucus wrote to performing ICE Director Lyons final month, demanding the discharge of pregnant, postpartum and nursing immigrants who don’t pose a safety threat.

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<img class="image" alt="A woman walks toward a building." srcset="https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/45be828/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5000x3333+0+0/resize/320x213!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F13%2F1e%2Fb36d9b314ef8bc69ad6d6624469a%2F1526260-la-me-ice-detained-while-pregnant-kg-01.jpg 320w,https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/125726b/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5000x3333+0+0/resize/568x379!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F13%2F1e%2Fb36d9b314ef8bc69ad6d6624469a%2F1526260-la-me-ice-detained-while-pregnant-kg-01.jpg 568w,https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/283c1ee/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5000x3333+0+0/resize/768x512!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F13%2F1e%2Fb36d9b314ef8bc69ad6d6624469a%2F1526260-la-me-ice-detained-while-pregnant-kg-01.jpg 768w,https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/b311bf3/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5000x3333+0+0/resize/1024x683!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F13%2F1e%2Fb36d9b314ef8bc69ad6d6624469a%2F1526260-la-me-ice-detained-while-pregnant-kg-01.jpg 1024w,https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/e7ea598/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5000x3333+0+0/resize/1200x800!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F13%2F1e%2Fb36d9b314ef8bc69ad6d6624469a%2F1526260-la-me-ice-detained-while-pregnant-kg-01.jpg 1200w" sizes="100vw" width="1200" height="800" src="https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/e7ea598/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5000x3333+0+0/resize/1200x800!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F13%2F1e%2Fb36d9b314ef8bc69ad6d6624469a%2F1526260-la-me-ice-detained-while-pregnant-kg-01.jpg" decoding="async" loading="lazy"/> Pineda arrives at her immigration appointment on Oct. 16.

(Karla Gachet / For The Occasions)

Pineda migrated from El Salvador in 2023, a part of an unprecedented wave of tens of millions who arrived on the U.S. border between 2020 and 2025. Her husband and two younger kids, alongside along with her mom and brother, fled the nation hoping to flee gang members who harassed and beat her husband at work, she stated. Her father had already settled within the U.S.

They discovered a “coyote” who charged hundreds of {dollars} and requested her mom to place up her land as collateral till the debt was paid off. However after they arrived, they discovered making ends meet tough. They shuffled between properties within the San Fernando Valley, staying with relations and typically strangers.

After some time, her husband had regular work in development. Her daughter, now 7, was studying English and loved college. Her 3-year-old son was making associates. Pineda and her sister-in-law had began a meals stand, the place she offered breakfast and pupusas to day laborers close to the House Depot.

On June 19, she rose hours earlier than dawn, dressed and went to her sister-in-law’s residence. Because the solar rose, they started making ready the meals and have been promoting it within the parking zone by 6 a.m. She earned about $200 per week from the stand and used the cash to assist purchase groceries and odds and ends for the kids. She had been nervous about heading out that morning.

Two weeks earlier, raids orchestrated by U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino had upended Los Angeles’ immigrant group.

Round 8:30 a.m. brokers pulled up in an unmarked automotive.

Pineda nonetheless has the surveillance video of the arrest on her mom’s cellphone. You possibly can barely make her out.

“I couldn’t run as a result of I used to be pregnant,” she stated. “They handcuffed me with my palms within the again, put me within the automotive and took me.”

She arrived on the South Louisiana ICE Processing Heart on June 24. Pineda stated there have been medical staffers on web site, however no person outfitted to conduct sonograms or any of the conventional care she was accustomed to. To see a physician, she was bused almost three hours every technique to a medical heart in Monroe, La.

<img class="image" alt="A woman and two childen." srcset="https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/b025d81/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2950x4424+0+0/resize/320x480!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F97%2F17%2F1ac3e9114b49924fb50fa4afc9d4%2F1526260-la-me-ice-detained-while-pregnant-kg-09.jpg 320w,https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/558c8a7/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2950x4424+0+0/resize/568x852!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F97%2F17%2F1ac3e9114b49924fb50fa4afc9d4%2F1526260-la-me-ice-detained-while-pregnant-kg-09.jpg 568w,https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/33c65e8/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2950x4424+0+0/resize/768x1152!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F97%2F17%2F1ac3e9114b49924fb50fa4afc9d4%2F1526260-la-me-ice-detained-while-pregnant-kg-09.jpg 768w,https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/f207954/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2950x4424+0+0/resize/1024x1536!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F97%2F17%2F1ac3e9114b49924fb50fa4afc9d4%2F1526260-la-me-ice-detained-while-pregnant-kg-09.jpg 1024w,https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/4f98201/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2950x4424+0+0/resize/1200x1800!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F97%2F17%2F1ac3e9114b49924fb50fa4afc9d4%2F1526260-la-me-ice-detained-while-pregnant-kg-09.jpg 1200w" sizes="100vw" width="1200" height="1800" src="https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/4f98201/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2950x4424+0+0/resize/1200x1800!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F97%2F17%2F1ac3e9114b49924fb50fa4afc9d4%2F1526260-la-me-ice-detained-while-pregnant-kg-09.jpg" decoding="async" loading="lazy"/> Pineda with Sofia, 7, and Axel Serrano, 3, at their residence in Van Nuys.

(Karla Gachet / For The Occasions)

For the primary month, she stated, she couldn’t name her household.

Separated from her daughter and son by 1,500 miles and partitions and fences, she needed to get out of there.

“It was actually onerous for her,” she stated of her daughter. “Each time she talked to me, she cried.”

She befriended a bunch of seven ladies. To move the time, they weaved bracelets and rings out of plastic luggage and talked about their homeland. She noticed ladies who fought their circumstances.

After greater than three months, guards informed her that she was set to see a decide.

“I informed them I didn’t need to,” she stated. “I had signed my papers” to self-deport to El Salvador.

The decide set her departure date for Oct. 3 and she or he was informed to rearrange a flight to Los Angeles.

Her household skipped paying the hire and bought her a ticket. It was Sept. 29. Guards dropped her off on the airport.

Days later, she met with immigration officers in Los Angeles. Together with her being pregnant almost full time period, the officers prolonged her departure date to March.

The day is bearing down on her.

“My husband stated he received’t let me go alone,” she stated. So she is making an attempt to determine the best way to pay for 4 tickets residence. And the way they are going to put meals on the desk in El Salvador.