The Trump Administration Is Hiding How Many Pregnant People Are In ICE Detention

An Intercept article reports on evidence indicating that ICE is detaining pregnant women at alarming rates, in rapidly deteriorating conditions:

“This is the first time I’ve seen so many pregnant people in [ICE] detention,” said Tania Wolf, the Southeast advocacy manager at the National Immigration Project. Experts at the American Civil Liberties Union and the Women’s Refugee Commission made similar observations.

“There are cases of people who clearly meet the criteria not to be detained, and that ICE has gone ahead and detained anyway,” said Eunice Cho, senior counsel at the ACLU National Prison Project. Zain Lakhani, the director of migrant rights and justice at the Women’s Refugee Commission, said her group has noticed “a significant increase in the number of pregnant detainees, of pregnant women, postpartum and lactating women in detention,” in the months since President Donald Trump returned to office.