America’s immigration nightmare: Pregnant women left to bleed behind bars

According to a coalition of leading human rights organizations, pregnant detainees have described severe bleeding, miscarriages, shackling, and other forms of medical negligence while in ICE custody.

The groups — including the National Immigration Project, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, Southern Shelter, and Project Abolish Detention — sent a letter on Wednesday, October 22, 2025, to ICE committees and the U.S. Senate detailing interviews with more than a dozen women.

The letter states that ICE has detained and imprisoned pregnant individuals even after they notified officers of their pregnancies, in direct violation of the agency’s own guidelines.

It specifically notes that ICE has arrested multiple pregnant women over domestic disputes — endangering survivors of domestic violence who are already at high risk of further abuse and harm.

According to the letter, several women reported being shackled during transport, placed in solitary confinement, denied proper prenatal care, given inadequate food, and subjected to medical procedures without informed consent. In some cases, negligence led to life-threatening infections following miscarriages.

The report focuses on the testimonies of six women held in two detention facilities — in Basile, Louisiana, and Lumpkin, Georgia.

One woman, identified as Alicia, described being separated from her two children in April and detained in Basile, where she learned she was pregnant. During detention, she was given small portions of poor-quality food, leading to hunger, malnutrition, and severe abdominal pain and bleeding.

Her transfer to a local emergency room provided no relief. Facility staff and medical personnel failed to explain the treatment being administered and conducted invasive tests without consent.

Alicia said she was injected with an unknown drug and soon after suffered a miscarriage.

Officials told her she would be deported, but ICE kept her detained for two more months, during which she suffered worsening health complications including bleeding, swelling, and fever. She was finally deported in July.

Another woman, Lucia, was arrested by ICE in Georgia shortly after attending an immigration check-in appointment. When she began showing pregnancy symptoms, she repeatedly requested medical attention, but it took weeks before she was seen by a doctor, who confirmed she was about two months pregnant.

Two weeks later, Lucia experienced heavy bleeding in the middle of the night. According to the letter, medical staff placed her in a small room and left her unattended without explanation.

Hours later, she was taken — shackled hand and foot — to a hospital an hour away, where she was told she had miscarried.

A third woman, Marie, said that when she informed detention officers, she was pregnant, they didn’t believe her and kept her in solitary confinement for at least three days.

Marie reported that medical staff told her she “wouldn’t die” if she didn’t receive prenatal supplements. In another instance, she was injected with a substance without consent and was given no translation or explanation of what the drug was.

According to the letter, Marie also witnessed another detainee miscarry in the cell’s bathroom.

Human rights groups are calling for ICE to immediately identify and release all pregnant detainees and to shut down facilities that have documented, repeated violations of detention standards.

In response, Tricia McLaughlin, Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, dismissed the reports, claiming they were part of an effort to “discredit ICE.”