ICE Detention While Pregnant
Sarah Terzo
by Sarah Terzo
In February 2026, pro-lifers published an open letter to the Trump Administration regarding pregnant people incarcerated by ICE.
Pregnant People in ICE Detention
According to ICE Directive 11032.4: “Identification and Monitoring of Pregnant, Postpartum, or Nursing Individuals,” ICE isn’t supposed to be detaining pregnant women at all, except in the most extreme circumstances. The directive reads:
Generally, ICE should not detain, arrest, or take into custody for an administrative violation of the immigration laws individuals known to be pregnant, postpartum, or nursing unless release is prohibited by law or exceptional circumstances exist.
Yet there have been many reports of increasing numbers of pregnant people being placed in detention. Even more troubling, many of these women have been denied necessary medical care, sometimes leading to miscarriages.
In an open letter, a coalition of groups, including the ACLU, the National Immigration Project, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and the Sanctuary Now Abolition Project, told the stories of women incarcerated by ICE during their pregnancies.
The authors of the letter spent five months interviewing over a dozen women who were pregnant or had recently experienced a miscarriage while incarcerated in two detention facilities in Louisiana and Georgia.
They called their findings “gravely troubling.” Pregnant people in ICE custody experienced:
shackling, use of restraints, and solitary confinement; delayed and substandard prenatal care; denial of prenatal vitamins; inadequate food and water; medical care provided without informed consent; lack of interpretation and translation in medical encounters; and medical neglect leading to dangerous infection after miscarriage.
The letter further stated, “Almost all the women we interviewed reported inadequate prenatal care, denial of prenatal vitamins, and/or medical neglect while detained . . . ”
The report highlighted several stories. To protect the victims from retaliation, it used pseudonyms.
Here are some stories.
A Pregnant Tourist Detained by ICE
“Marie” wasn’t an immigrant, and she wasn’t in the United States illegally. However, she was held in an ICE detention facility for twenty weeks anyway while she was pregnant.
In 2024, Marie was a graduate student visiting the U.S. under a valid tourist visa. During her visit, she discovered she was pregnant and was told her pregnancy was high-risk because of underlying medical conditions.
Marie was the victim of a crime and lost her original travel and identity documents. The embassy of her home country sent her electronic versions as replacements, but she would have to wait for the physical documents to arrive through the mail.
In April 2025, while she was still waiting for the paper documents, Marie decided to travel to Canada. Officials stopped her at the U.S.-Canadian border. Canadian officials declined to accept her electronic documentation and, because she didn’t have the original copies of her identification and visa, contacted U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CPB) agents, who questioned Marie.
Marie showed CBP agents the electronic copies and explained that the paper copies were on their way. She also informed them of her pregnancy. Officials arrested her anyway.
Originally, Marie was told they wouldn’t hold her for long. But after two days, they transferred her thousands of miles away to the detention center in Basile, Louisiana.
Medical Neglect and Harm
Over the twenty weeks that Marie was a prisoner, she endured “multiple instances of medical neglect and psychological harm.”
As soon as she arrived at Basile, Marie told the guards about her pregnancy. However, they didn’t believe her. They held her in solitary confinement for three days before allowing her into the general population.
Officials didn’t schedule Marie for a pregnancy screening and prenatal care review until other pregnant women in the dorms repeatedly complained and agitated for her to receive proper care.
The food at Basile was of such poor quality that Marie often couldn’t eat it. She was also refused prenatal vitamins, despite requesting them. During sick call, a nurse told her, “You won’t die if you don’t take them.”
When Marie received medical care, there was another problem. The facility didn’t provide her with an interpreter during her appointments. Therefore, she was unsure whether she had received prenatal screenings, HIV testing, or vaccinations.
At one point, staff gave Marie a shot without her consent. She didn’t know what medication they gave her because of the language barrier.
Several times during her incarceration, Marie experienced severe cramps and pleaded for medical help, fearing a miscarriage. Each time she was ignored. On at least one occasion, a nurse refused to listen to her symptoms and concerns.
The only “medical care” Marie received for her cramping was Tylenol. Staff told her it was common for pregnant women to have severe cramps. This is untrue, and Marie, who was already experiencing a high-risk pregnancy, was at an elevated risk of miscarriage.
Fortunately, Marie didn’t lose her baby. Other women in detention, including at Basile, weren’t so lucky.
During her time in custody, Marie witnessed other pregnant women being mistreated and denied medical care, including at least one miscarriage. A fellow pregnant detainee from Guatemala delivered a stillborn baby in the bathroom after staff ignored her requests for help. The woman had been bleeding for three days before she lost her baby.
During the twenty weeks of her incarceration, Marie repeatedly pleaded to be allowed to return to her country of legal residence. However, she wasn’t permitted to leave detention. She was eager to travel home, but officials refused to let her. It was only after legal advocates intervened that Marie was finally released.
Incarceration left Marie with deep emotional scars. She said she cried every day and night for a week after returning home and had nightmares.
Possibly because of the medical neglect she suffered for so long, Marie developed eclampsia, a dangerous complication, in the last weeks of her pregnancy. After a “difficult and painful” labor, she gave birth to her baby in August 2025. At the time of the interview, she was suffering from postpartum depression, which she attributed to the trauma she experienced while detained.
Inadequate Food and Water
“Jenny” was taken into ICE custody in February 2025 and incarcerated in Basile, Louisiana. When the agents arrested her, Jenny was visibly pregnant. Even though she informed officers about her pregnancy, they placed her in restraints and transported her across the country to Louisiana.
At Basile, Jenny met two female detainees who had recently suffered miscarriages while in custody. Several other pregnant women were in her housing unit. Staff failed to provide drinking water—the women had to ask guards for it. According to Jenny, sometimes the guards refused.
Besides the lack of drinking water, Jenny suffered from diarrhea and vomiting because the food was of such poor quality. She was transported to the hospital twice because of vaginal bleeding.
Jenny was only released from custody when advocates intervened in her case. After her release, she gave birth to her newborn. According to the interviewer, however, she remains “deeply traumatized” by her time in ICE custody. The memory of the other pregnant women whom she left behind, and the substandard food, lack of drinking water, and poor conditions they endured, haunts her.
Arrested and Shackled Despite a Valid Visa
“Julieta,” a Mexican woman, spent two months in Basile while pregnant, and is still awaiting the birth of her baby. She had lawfully entered the country after an appointment with the CBP. She was issued a visa and granted entry to the U.S., and her visa was still valid when ICE arrested and detained her. ICE is prohibited from shackling pregnant women. However, officials shackled Julieta’s ankles, hands, and waist when they transported her from the East Coast to Louisiana. The flight comprised five layovers.
She found the food at Basile “inedible” and went without eating for some time. According to the interviewers, Julieta “fears that poor nutrition and the stress of detention could endanger her pregnancy or result in miscarriage.”
More Denial of Medical Care
“Ana” was still in Basile when she was interviewed. She was six months pregnant. She informed ICE that she was pregnant when they arrested her, but they detained her anyway. Ana initially faced a criminal charge concerning a domestic dispute, but she resolved it.
Staff refused to give Ana prenatal vitamins for the first month of her detention. They just told her, “You have to wait,” every time she asked them. She told interviewers she’s suffering from nausea and vomiting. She cannot keep down the food served at Basile, so she barely eats. Ana also has pain throughout her body.
She couldn’t get any medical care for these problems. The only treatment ICE has provided her with is Tylenol.
Ana’s baby will be a U.S. citizen if he or she survives until birth. Ana also has an older child, another U.S. citizen, waiting for her at home.
These are just a few pregnant people detained by ICE. Most of them were lucky that, despite medical neglect, their children were born alive, or they were still pregnant at the time of their interviews.
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For our posts on migrants, see:
When Immigration Is a Life Issue
Would My Grandparents Have Died in the Pogroms?
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