ICE Arrested A Nursing Mom. A Trump-Appointed Judge Ordered Her Release Three Months Later

The mother of a six-month-old baby must be released from immigration detention after Donald Trump’s administration declined to mount a defense for keeping her there while she was still nursing, according to a federal judge.

ICE policy states that agents “should not detain, arrest, or take into custody for an administrative violation of the immigration laws individuals known to be pregnant, postpartum, or nursing unless release is prohibited by law or exceptional circumstances exist.”

Officers are also required to rely on “credible information” to determine whether someone in custody is pregnant, postpartum or nursing and notify their superiors “generally within two hours” when those women are arrested.

ICE has repeatedly failed to follow its own policies requiring officers to ask people they arrest about their children to ensure they have an opportunity to decide what happens to them if they’re deported, according to a recent report from the Women’s Refugee Commission and Physicians for Human Rights.