Pregnant Immigrants and Asylum Seekers During COVID-19

This issue brief outlines evidence of the mistreatment of pregnant immigrants and people seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border and in US immigration detention, and discusses how existing policies have created the conditions for escalating human rights abuses during COVID-19. This issue brief supports public health guidance and human rights standards directing the release of all people in immigration detention during the pandemic, but focuses on a subset of reforms that are urgently needed to ensure the health and safety of pregnant asylum seekers and immigrants during and long after the pandemic.

This brief was developed in partnership with the Center for Reproductive Rights, American Friends Service Committee, and Human Rights First.