ACLU files complaint with DHS watchdog documenting abuse of pregnant people in CBP custody

Daily Kos Staff

Friday January 24, 2020 · 12:56 PM PST

2020/01/24 · 12:56

RIO GRANDE CITY, TX - MARCH 13: A fire alarm and thermometer hang from the walls of a detention center for captured undocumented immigrants stands near-empty at a U.S. Border Patrol station on March 13, 2017 in Rio Grande City, Texas. The Border Patrol has reported that illegal crossings from Mexico have dropped some 40 percent along the southwest border since Donald Trump took office. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

The ACLU Foundation of San Diego and Imperial Counties and the ACLU Border Rights Center have filed a complaint with the Homeland Security inspector general documenting the inhumane treatment of pregnant people in Customs and Border Protection custody. “CBP routinely fails to treat its vulnerable detainees with the dignity and respect that all people deserve,” ACLUF-SDIC attorney Mitra Ebadolahi said in a statement. “Anyone who is pregnant requires heightened medical care. CBP and Border Patrol detention facilities are categorically unsuitable to provide this level of care.”

“Between March and July 2019, ACLUF-SDIC staff interviewed more than 100 people soon after their release from CBP custody, documenting numerous disturbing accounts of abuse and mistreatment, including abuse of people who were pregnant during detention,” the statement continued. “For example, one pregnant woman said she was repeatedly slammed against a chain link fence by a Border Patrol agent. Another woman said she experienced a miscarriage while detained in a Border Patrol facility for 12 days, but did not receive any hygienic products or medical care.”

That person, Irene, suffered further harm when agents also took her HIV medications away. “As Border Patrol had confiscated Irene’s HIV medication, Irene’s symptoms flared,” the complaint states. “She suffered intense trembling and cold sweats. In addition, Irene continued to experience symptoms consistent with miscarriage, including excruciating cramping and lower back pain. After twelve days in Border Patrol custody, Irene finally was transferred to the Otay Mesa Detention Center, where she was evaluated by medical personnel. These providers confirmed that Irene was no longer pregnant.”

The inhumane conditions in these border facilities are well-established, yet officials kept people listed in the complaint detained for prolonged periods of time. “CBP facilities are only intended to be used for short-term custody. Many of these facilities—including almost all Border Patrol stations—lack beds, showers, or full-time medical care staff.” Irene was kept in custody nearly two weeks, while another person named in the complaint, Nancy, was detained for ten days before being transferred to a hospital. She said that she had been trying to tell agents that she was unwell, but was instead accused of lying. “If I were you, I would have returned home already,” she said they told her.

Pregnant people shouldn’t be held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody either, yet the Trump administration in 2018 horrifically changed policy to allow the agency to detain more. This change, advocate Katie Shepherd told The Daily Beast at the time, “confirms our fears that the government is continuing its barbaric policy of detaining pregnant women despite substantial evidence that detention of this particularly vulnerable population has been linked to serious health implications to the mother and unborn child and also constitutes a significant barrier to receiving a meaningful day in court.”

The groups recommend “that no individual be held in CBP or Border Patrol detention facilities longer than the time required for initial processing—which in no case should exceed 12 hours.” This is the first in a series of complaints the groups are expected to file within the next several weeks addressing immigration abuses. “We urge you to read and share this complaint,” Ebadolahi wrote in a tweet. “American tax dollars fund this detention dystopia. People of conscience must demand that these abuses stop.”

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