More than a dozen women have reported suffering medical neglect and mistreatment while pregnant in U.S. immigration custody, including being shackled, placed in solitary confinement, and denied prenatal care, according to a letter sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Senate committees by a coalition of advocacy groups.
The letter — signed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Immigration Project, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the Sanctuary of the South, and the Sanctuary Now Abolition Project — urges ICE to release all pregnant detainees and stop holding anyone known to be pregnant, postpartum, or nursing.
"These stories are just the tip of the iceberg," said Eunice Cho, senior counsel at the ACLU's National Prison Project, to NBC News. "You have women who are talking about being shackled and restrained while they're actively miscarrying; you have women begging and pleading for things as basic as prenatal vitamins and being denied."
The letter describes several specific cases, including that of a woman identified as Lucia, who experienced heavy bleeding while detained in an ICE processing center earlier this year. Advocates said she waited hours for medical attention and was later taken to an emergency room "with her arms and legs shackled," where doctors confirmed she had miscarried.
Another woman, Marie, said she was placed in solitary confinement after officials doubted her pregnancy, denied prenatal vitamins, and received a vaccine without consent or translation services.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE have not responded to the new allegations. DHS previously denied similar claims in August, saying that "all ICE detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and access to 24-hour emergency care."
The new claims follow earlier findings reported by The Intercept on October 12, which detailed the case of a Venezuelan asylum seeker in Washington who said she went two months without seeing an OB-GYN despite abdominal pain and a COVID-19 infection. She was released after the outlet contacted DHS and its private contractor, GEO Group.
Advocates cited that case as part of a broader pattern under the Trump administration, noting a rise in the number of pregnant, postpartum, and nursing women in ICE detention, even though federal guidance instructs the agency to avoid detaining them except in exceptional cases. "This is the first time I've seen so many pregnant people in detention," said Tania Wolf of the National Immigration Project at the time.
Congressional inquiries over the last few months such as one by Sen. Jon Ossoff in August have raised similar concerns. Ossof'ss investigation identified at least 14 credible allegations of mistreatment involving pregnant women in ICE custody, including delays in urgent care and one case where a woman "was left alone in a hospital room to miscarry."
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