By Katya Kolluri
While Attorney General Jeff Sessions publicly introduced the “zero tolerance” immigration policy in May that caused children to be separated from their families, another Department of Homeland Security policy was quietly instituted five months earlier. In December, Trump signed off on a new directive which allows the detention of pregnant women, except those in their third trimester of pregnancy.
One of the directive’s listed responsibilities is: “Ensuring pregnant detainees receive appropriate medical care including effectuating transfers to facilities that are able to provide appropriate medical treatment”.
However, numerous pregnant detainees claimed this directive was not being followed. A recent journalistic investigation by BuzzFeed revealed that pregnant women held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody under the Trump Administration were abused and denied medical care during their first few weeks of detention, with almost all of them miscarrying while still in custody. In addition, pregnant women were shackled tightly around the stomach when being transported between facilities, and were physically and psychologically abused while in detention. Five women who were pregnant while in ICE and CBP custody described jailers being unresponsive to their medical emergencies including while they were clearly miscarrying, and physical abuse from CBP officers who knew that they were pregnant. In the report, one woman claimed she had been pushed onto the floor by officers even after her telling them that she was pregnant. The officers were quoted as having said that they did not believe the woman, and that it was not their problem.
