Pregnant immigration detainees spiked 52 percent under Trump administration

WASHINGTON – U.S. officials jailed approximately 2,100 pregnant women for immigration violations in 2018, including hundreds who were held for weeks or months, a 52 percent increase since President Trump took office, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Thursday.

Lawyers for pregnant women say it is unfair to force women to remain in jail, fighting nausea and other pregnancy symptoms, while pleading their asylum cases. Some women have fled domestic violence in Central America and others were raped on their journeys through Mexico to the U.S. border.

The Women’s Refugee Commission and other advocacy groups filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General and the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Office in 2017 citing inadequate medical care and reports of women who had suffered infections, stress and in some instances, miscarriages in detention.