Alicia is scheduled to report to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in April, a process she has completed many times as an immigrant who has lived in Louisiana for nearly a decade. This time, she was suddenly in federal custody.
ICE transported her to the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basel, where staff performed a wellness exam that revealed she was pregnant. Despite ICE directives generally prohibiting the detention of pregnant women, Alicia was held for three months.
At the facility, she was kept away from her two children – a teenager and a child under five – and given only small portions of “substandard” food to leave her hungry. She also underwent a medical exam that she did not consent to and suffered a miscarriage, the civil rights group said in a letter to ICE last month.
The groups are demanding that ICE conduct a review to identify and release all pregnant women from detention. independent ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, have been asked for comment.
The letter states that more than a dozen pregnant and postpartum women reported that Alicia was among those restrained, undernourished and “medically neglected” by ICE agents at the Basel facility and another detention center in Lumpkin, Georgia.
Federal agents detained a nine-month-old pregnant woman after an immigration court hearing in New York City. A letter from the civil rights group said an unknown number of pregnant and breastfeeding women have been detained this year despite ICE’s own directives generally prohibiting the detention of pregnant and breastfeeding women. (Pacific Press/LightRocket/Getty)
“Detention is inappropriate for a pregnant person under any circumstances,” said Sarah Decker, senior staff attorney at RFK Human Rights, a nonprofit advocacy group. independent. Decker spoke with Alicia, who is identified only by a pseudonym, while in custody.
About a month into her detention, Alicia began experiencing severe abdominal pain, vaginal discharge, cramping and bleeding. She was taken to a nearby emergency room in shackles. There, the letter said, she underwent invasive medical procedures without her consent. After the surgery, medical staff told Alicia she had suffered a miscarriage, speaking only in English instead of her native Spanish.
“It was very traumatic for her because she couldn’t understand why she had a miscarriage and what they were doing to her,” Decker said. National detention standards require ICE to provide language assistance to detainees with limited English proficiency.
Six hours after arriving at the hospital, She was returned to Basil prison, where officials told Alicia she would be deported to her country of origin, but her lawyer did not disclose this to protect her identity. Alicia’s attorney said that while it’s unclear why facility officials made the remark, Alicia interpreted it as retaliatory and an effort to silence her after she complained of medical neglect and abuse.
In fact, she stayed at the facility for another two months. The persistent symptoms — bleeding, swelling, foul-smelling vaginal discharge and severe pain — persisted. The pain became so severe that she had trouble sleeping.
When Decker and her team spoke with Alicia in June, “she could barely talk to us because she was in so much pain and crying so much,” the attorney said. Alicia made multiple sick leave requests to the facility’s medical staff but received no response, the letter said.
It wasn’t until Alicia was deported in July that she was able to obtain antibiotics to treat an untreated vaginal infection she suffered while in ICE custody following a miscarriage.
Alicia’s story is a tragic example of why, under ICE’s 2021 policy, there are only limited exceptions for detaining pregnant women — if they pose a national security concern or pose an imminent risk of death, violence, or physical harm to someone.
But even under these exceptions, the agency must monitor pregnant women in custody to ensure appropriate care.
A mother hugs her child in a detention court in New York City. The Trump administration has made it more difficult to track children separated from parents in ICE custody. (Getty)
However, during the second Trump administration, pregnant women were repeatedly detained. The exact number of pregnant women in immigration detention is not yet known, and independent That number has been requested from ICE.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told reporters independent On November 6, pregnant women accounted for “0.133% of all illegal aliens detained.”
“Pregnant women in custody are also subject to stricter supervision,” she said. “The ACLU’s letter includes anonymous, unsubstantiated and unverifiable claims. Pregnant women receive regular prenatal care, mental health services, nutritional support and accommodations consistent with community standards of care.”
Data from the media, lawsuits and congressional reports show that dozens of pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding women have been detained so far this year.
Zain Lakhani, director of immigrant rights and justice for the Women’s Refugee Council, said ICE facilities have become a “black box” independent.
The committee launched the Detention Pregnancy Tracking System to create a record of the treatment of pregnant women in ICE custody by integrating information from attorneys, health care providers and labor organizers.
From 2019 to 2024, Congress requires the Department of Homeland Security to provide biannual reports on pregnant, postpartum or breastfeeding women in ICE custody, including “detailed justification” for their detention. But Congress did not renew the requirement in 2025.
Exterior of the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basel, Louisiana, where Alicia receives a health check. Pregnant women held at the facility reported “dreams” about eating meat, and some claimed they had not been fed any protein for weeks, a lawyer said (AP)
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and 28 Senate colleagues wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in September requesting information on how many pregnant women were detained.
Noem had not responded to the letter as of Nov. 25, Murray’s spokesman confirmed independent.
senator told independent She is fighting for “stronger oversight and humane treatment” of pregnant women in ICE custody.
“The Trump administration’s approach to immigration is cruel for the sake of being cruel — they take great pleasure in breaking the law and using overwhelming force against law-abiding immigrants for no reason,” the Washington Democrat said.
Doctors and health agencies recommend certain dietary guidelines during pregnancy, often advising women to eat at least 300 extra calories per day. Alicia said the portions were small, even for her alone, and the food wasn’t always edible, according to the civil rights group’s letter.
Some pregnant women reported eating only a small piece of frozen burritos throughout the day, while others said their food was moldy or infested with insects, Lakhani said.
Others reported that staples served at ICE facilities included less than a handful of beans, half a slice of white bread, a handful of “soggy” green beans and “mysterious ground meat,” Decker said. It is reported that extended periods of time without meat are not uncommon, especially at the Basel factory.
“We have women telling us that they dream of eating meat because they have not had any source of protein for weeks,” the lawyer said.
The ICE directive requires the agency to ensure that detained pregnant women are “housed in facilities appropriate to their medical and mental health needs” and that their “general health and well-being” is monitored.
However, the problem of starving pregnant detainees appears to be widespread, extending far beyond the confines of the Basil and Lumpkin Centers. Pregnant detainees at an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, “are not provided regular meals, nor are they provided with additional snacks, milk, juice or any of the additional nutrients recommended for pregnant women,” attorneys said in a legal filing alleging the center was unsanitary and overcrowded.
At the Basil facility, Decker said, Alicia similarly complained about cold temperatures and unsanitary conditions. Federal judge has ordered multiple ICE facilities to improve conditions after troubling reports.
Other detainees have reported instances of medical neglect similar to Alicia’s experience. He said a man incarcerated at the Broadview facility reported seeing a pregnant woman in custody asking ICE officials for medication but being refused.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visits “Camp 57,” ICE’s new facility inside Louisiana’s notorious maximum security prison. Judges have ordered ICE facilities across the country to improve conditions after reports of unsanitary and overcrowding (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
“She asked ICE officers for the medications she needed, but they would not provide her with any,” he said in the statement, which is part of a lawsuit surrounding “crisis conditions” at the facility.
In addition to harsh conditions, family separation is inherently intertwined with the detention of pregnant and postpartum women. Lakhani said women who already had children expressed “severe stress and pain caused by the separation.”
In July, ICE issued a new version of its 2022 directive on detaining parents of minor children. The new directive weakens ICE’s obligations and makes it more difficult for parents facing deportation to make arrangements for their children.
The 2022 directive states that ICE “must provide” parents the opportunity to consult with counsel to determine next steps for their minor children, such as who will care for them before being removed from the United States. The 2025 directive states that ICE “shall provide these opportunities to detained parents “to the extent practicable.”
Lakhani expressed concern about the lack of long-term tracking of children after their parents are swept up by ICE, especially amid the chaos of mass arrests.
“There’s no attention to detail to make sure that if you arrest a parent, you know they’re going to be able to have contact with their child, they’re going to be able to reunite with their child,” Lakhani said.
For Alicia, being separated from her children “caused her tremendous psychological distress,” Decker said. “This alone is enough to cause serious pregnancy complications if anyone has experienced something similar.”
To this day, she remains separated from her children.
This article has been updated to reference the correct ICE directive.