1. Events
 / Modified nov 3, 2021 1:21 p.m.

Senators call on CBP to stop detaining pregnant women

The senators focus on a woman who gave birth standing up while detained at a California Border Patrol station in February 2020.
by Alisa Reznick

cbp badge A Customs and Border Protection employee in 2018.
Mani Albrecht/CBP/Flickr

A group of senators is calling on Customs and Border Protection to stop detaining people who are pregnant.

The request comes a few months after Immigration and Customs Enforcement enacted a similar policy.

In a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, almost a dozen Democratic senators say CBP should limit the time pregnant, nursing and postpartum women spend in government custody.

The senators focus on a woman who gave birth standing up while detained at a California Border Patrol station in February 2020. The complaint says after she was taken to the hospital with her newborn, both spent more time detained with CBP. Her experience was detailed in a government watchdog report and is now the subject of an ACLU lawsuit.

The senators’ letter says policy is needed to ensure incidents like it don’t happen again. They say CBP leadership has already acknowledged that detaining pregnant women poses serious risks.

Fronteras Desk
Fronteras Desk is a KJZZ project covering important stories in an expanse stretching from Northern Arizona deep into northwestern Mexico.
MORE: Border, Immigration, News
By posting comments, you agree to our
AZPM encourages comments, but comments that contain profanity, unrelated information, threats, libel, defamatory statements, obscenities, pornography or that violate the law are not allowed. Comments that promote commercial products or services are not allowed. Comments in violation of this policy will be removed. Continued posting of comments that violate this policy will result in the commenter being banned from the site.

By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.
AZPM is a service of the University of Arizona and our broadcast stations are licensed to the Arizona Board of Regents who hold the trademarks for Arizona Public Media and AZPM. We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples.
The University of Arizona