This week, a coalition of pro-life organizations and thought leaders released an open letter calling on the Trump administration to reinstate and enforce federal protections for pregnant women in immigration custody. Pregnancy and early postpartum recovery are medical states that immigration detention facilities are not designed to safely accommodate, and federal policy should reflect that reality. The letter, signed by pro-lifers across the ideological and political spectrum, urges the administration to restore limits that for years governed when Immigration and Customs Enforcement could detain pregnant women.
Detaining pregnant women places both maternal and fetal health at risk, and in the vast majority of cases it is unnecessary when safer, more humane alternatives already exist. For much of the past decade, ICE policy acknowledged these realities. In 2016, the agency adopted a presumption of release for pregnant women unless extraordinary circumstances justified detention. That presumption was formally ended in late 2017. In July 2021, ICE issued new guidance stating that, absent narrow exceptions, the agency should not arrest or detain individuals known to be pregnant, postpartum, or nursing.
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