Last week, WRC and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) traveled to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, to meet with women who had recently been detained and deported from the United States. Our delegation—comprised of an immigration lawyer, medical doctor, and other advocates—met with doctors, social workers, and national and municipal government representatives who are receiving and providing services to these women.
What We Saw
Sweeping arrests and rapid deportations are leading to the detention of pregnant women and the separation of mothers from their young children.
The US is deporting around 300 people to Honduras every day. Chartered flights land at the San Pedro Sula airport 1–3 times a day, seven days a week. During our first week there, WRC and PHR observed that most of the people deported were men. On average, there were 5–15 women on each flight of 70–140 people. Families deported together arrived less frequently, but those with children were quickly processed and sent to receive services at a separate government-run reception center designed specifically to be welcoming to children.
Pregnant Women are Being Detained and Deported
We can verify that pregnant women are being detained and deported, despite longstanding US government policy which states that pregnant, postpartum, and lactating women should not be detained except in extraordinary circumstances. On one arriving flight, three of the eight women were visibly pregnant, consistent with what WRC is learning through our detention pregnancy tracker.
Accounts of Abuse, Denied Medical Care, Days Filled with Fear
The pregnant women we met described the poor treatment they received in detention:
- A woman who was five months pregnant with her first child was detained for a month before being deported. She reported being taken to an OB/GYN appointment in handcuffs, and the guard staying in the room throughout the exam.
- Another woman, four months pregnant, was detained for 10 days and did not receive the medication she had been taking for gestational diabetes, despite saying that she needed it.
- All the women reported abusive and hostile treatment during the time they were detained. Some were given pre-natal vitamins, but none took them. These visibly pregnant women were treated with such a lack of care that they did not trust that the pills were vitamins. They worried that they were being given something that would harm their babies.
Family Separation at Scale
We can also verify that mothers are routinely separated from their children, even when they have told ICE that they want to be deported with them. We saw mothers arrive in Honduras frantic about their children. For some, the reception center provided the first opportunity to contact their children or their children’s caregivers in weeks. The women were distraught until they learned their children were safe. While we spoke mostly to mothers, many fathers were also affected. Many parents initially projected resilience and strength but broke down when they started talking about their children in the US, and it began to sink in that it would be a long time before they saw them again.
We heard countless stories:
- A mother separated from her two month-old baby.
- A mother arrested as she was about to pick up her special needs child at school.
- Mothers never once asked if they had children in the US during their arrest, detention, or deportation processes.
- A mother of a five year-old whose father, a US citizen, plans to keep the child with him in the US, perhaps allowing the child to visit his mother in Honduras during school vacations.
- Mothers afraid that their children will be put up for adoption in the US.
Complete Disregard for Due Process and Human Rights
Multiple mothers told us that during their arrests, they were not informed of their rights or the reason for their arrest. Their documents—including work permits, drivers licenses, and Honduran passports—were confiscated or destroyed. They were surrounded, grabbed, pushed, and shackled, and they were unable to call their family members or attorneys.
Inhumane Detention Conditions
Mothers consistently described harsh, dehumanizing conditions while detained:
- Frozen, rotten, or otherwise inedible food;
- Undrinkable, overly chlorinated water (bottled water was available for purchase);
- Sleeping on floors or cots in freezing, crowded rooms;
- No access to showers or clean clothes for days.
They reported that some guards showed kindness but most treated them as less than human.
Support from the Honduran Government
The Honduran government is providing services to people deported from the US. They greet new arrivals with a warm welcome, a hot meal, cash and food vouchers, medical assistance (people are often deported without their medications and urgently need new prescriptions), access to social workers, assistance applying for Honduran identification documents, a ride to the bus station, and bus fare to anywhere in the country.
The Honduran government has launched a process that allows deported Honduran parents to request government assistance to bring their children from the US to Honduras. Unfortunately, the existence of the program is not widely known, and resources are limited. We could not ascertain how long the government’s family reunification process takes, but we learned that at minimum it takes several months, and likely longer—and longer still if both parents are not available to consent or one parent refuses consent. This means that when ICE fails to ask about children in the US or ignores a parent’s request to be deported with their child, family separation is likely to last months, if not years—and to potentially become permanent.
Next Steps
In the coming weeks, WRC and PHR will analyze the data we collected from dozens of interviews with detained and deported women who were pregnant or separated from their children (or both). We will assess the information we received in our conversations with service providers. We will continue to receive reports through our detention pregnancy tracker and analyze the data to identify trends. We will use all available methods to collect the data the US government has failed to provide or has blocked access to, in violation of long-standing policies and the principles of transparency and good governance. Where we have permission, we will share stories. We will not allow violations of parental rights; the right to due process; and to health, safety, and basic humanity and human dignity to happen in the dark.