Lorena Pineda was 5 months pregnant when masked brokers picked her up on a road nook close to a San Fernando House Depot in June.
An agent grabbed her from the merchandising stand she ran along with her sister-in-law and put her in opposition to a automobile. “Watch out,” she instructed him. “I’m pregnant.”
“Don’t suppose I’m going to allow you to go due to that,” she recalled him saying.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement coverage states brokers shouldn’t detain, arrest or maintain pregnant, postpartum and nursing moms for “administrative violation of immigration legal guidelines” barring “distinctive circumstances” or if their launch is “prohibited by regulation.”
Lorena Pineda is checked by a physician in a clinic on Oct. 16, 2025.
(Karla Gachet / For The Occasions)
However pregnant ladies are more and more picked up, deported and detained underneath the Trump administration, advocates and attorneys contend.
Pineda, 27, was held at a downtown L.A. processing heart earlier than being transferred to San Bernardino, flown to Atlanta after which to a staging facility in Alexandria, La., after which taken on an hours-long journey to a rural a part of that state — the place for 3½ months she watched her stomach develop and her goals of life in America fade.
The American Civil Liberties Union has documented greater than a dozen instances of what it says are pregnant ladies housed with out correct medical care at Stewart Detention Middle in Lumpkin, Ga., and the ICE processing heart in Basile, La., the place Pineda was held.
In a single case, a lady was shackled whereas she miscarried. One other lady with a high-risk being pregnant was positioned in solitary confinement. In different situations, ladies have been denied prenatal care or not given translation providers to talk with medical employees. Some complained that their pleas for medical providers had been ignored for weeks, in response to the ACLU.
“That is solely the tip of the iceberg,” mentioned Eunice Cho, a lawyer with the ACLU and co-author of a letter despatched to performing ICE Director Todd Lyons in October asking that pregnant detainees be launched.
In accordance with Division of Homeland Safety spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, it’s “exceedingly uncommon” for pregnant ladies to be in detention. Those that are, she mentioned, obtain “common prenatal visits, psychological well being providers, dietary assist, and lodging aligned with neighborhood requirements of care.”
It’s unclear simply what number of pregnant and postpartum ladies are in custody, as a result of a congressional mandate to semiannually report the quantity lapsed underneath the Republican-led Congress.
Attorneys across the nation have mentioned their pregnant purchasers have been held in dire situations. In California, Angie Rodriguez, an asylum seeker held within the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Middle in Bakersfield, miscarried in July. She has since been launched.
On the facility in Basile, Neysis Mairena was six months pregnant with twins when she was hospitalized after experiencing contractions final month and was shackled to a hospital mattress, mentioned her lawyer, Thea Crane.
These ladies, Cho mentioned, “have been ripped away from their households, transported to detention services which are 1000’s of miles away from their households, and so they’re sitting in detention in these horrifying situations — anxious not solely about their households at house being deported, but in addition the well being and security of their pregnancies.”
McLaughlin famous that Pineda, Rodriguez and Mairena all had crossed the southern border within the final 5 years and had been “launched into the nation underneath the Biden administration.”
The medical care in detention, she mentioned, might be the “finest healthcare” that many immigrants have obtained of their life.
McLaughlin mentioned the ACLU’s findings don’t establish ladies by title and quantity to “nameless, unsubstantiated and unverifiable claims.”
“Pregnant ladies at present make up 0.133% of all unlawful aliens in custody,” she mentioned, including that they “are topic to elevated oversight.”
Pineda reveals photos of her unborn child that had been taken throughout her time in custody.
(Karla Gachet / For The Occasions)
She added that “all tragic, 4 miscarriages occurred at South Louisiana ICE Processing Middle — that’s 10% of the pregnant detainees and properly beneath the nationwide common.”
McLaughlin mentioned Rodriguez didn’t even know she was pregnant when she was detained and set for expedited elimination.
Mairena, a Nicaraguan immigrant, was by no means shackled to a hospital mattress and had been arrested on allegations of cruelty to a juvenile, McLaughlin mentioned.
Crane, her lawyer, mentioned Mairena was accused of home abuse with baby endangerment as a result of her 7-year-old daughter was current throughout an altercation along with her accomplice. Crane is combating these prices, saying Mairena was defending herself.
Mairena was launched from detention on Nov. 26, after The Occasions inquired about her case.
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After her arrest, Pineda spent greater than three months in a repurposed jail in Louisiana. The state has develop into a hub for immigrant detention underneath the Trump administration.
She got here to know the opposite immigrant ladies housed in a big room lined with 54 beds and a tv droning most waking hours. The Salvadoran mom of two mentioned she felt her child develop inside her as the times handed and he or she settled right into a heartsore rhythm, bonding with strangers eager for youngsters, household and residential.
She counted at the least 20 different pregnant ladies on the facility. A few of these she met had been launched, Pineda mentioned; others had been rapidly deported.
One of many ladies, she recalled, was about 4 months pregnant when she miscarried twins. The girl cried and begged guards for days after to assist her get tablets to expel the fetuses — assist that didn’t come earlier than Pineda left the power.
One other pregnant lady she met was set to be deported, however officers held her and he or she wound up miscarrying. Eight days later, they deported her, she mentioned.
“Think about,” Pineda mentioned. “They waited till she misplaced the infant earlier than deporting her.”
The situations on the facility had been troublesome. Guards yelled. The meals inside, she mentioned, had been largely junk meals. Sizzling canines, spaghetti. The tales she heard rattled her.
One lady she met on the facility had been arrested leaving the hospital after having a C-section. She mentioned immigration officers finally deported her with out her baby, although they had been later reunited.
“I used to be afraid of one thing like this,” Pineda mentioned. “You don’t know what’s going to occur.” She was petrified of giving start in custody.
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The Girls’s Refugee Fee, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit, has been trying to trace the variety of pregnant, postpartum and nursing moms detained by immigration brokers and doc the situations they face. Its leaders say they’ve encountered vital hurdles.
“We actually don’t know what is going on inside detention facilities,” mentioned Zain Lakhani, the fee’s director of migrant rights and justice.
With the reporting necessities eradicated and entry to services diminished after the administration ended many authorized packages contained in the services, it’s arduous to get a real image. “We used to have the ability to converse with them after which escalate complaints, both to the workplace of civil rights and civil liberties or immediately, form of internally to the power. We’re now not ready to try this.”
Since launching the tracker, she mentioned, the group has “obtained vital experiences of pregnant, postpartum, lactating ladies who’re being detained,” although she was not prepared to share figures. There’s additionally proof that ICE isn’t following coverage to supply sufficient housing, medical care and vitamin.
“These are extraordinarily weak populations that require specialised healthcare, that require a specialised vitamin and weight loss program,” Lakhani mentioned. “We all know very clearly from all the medical pointers round being pregnant that you’re somebody who wants to have the ability to go to a physician on a really common foundation. There are every kind of routine and emergency, and simply pressing form of healthcare wants that you’ve got.”
In July, an investigation spearheaded by Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) into human rights abuses in immigration detention discovered “14 credible experiences of mistreatment of pregnant ladies, and 18 credible experiences of mistreatment of kids.” The experiences included lack of sufficient medical care, well timed checkups or sufficient meals.
“The inhumane remedy of pregnant ladies by the administration is shameful,” the Democratic Girls’s Caucus wrote to performing ICE Director Lyons final month, demanding the discharge of pregnant, postpartum and nursing immigrants who don’t pose a safety danger.
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Pineda arrives at her immigration appointment on Oct. 16.
(Karla Gachet / For The Occasions)
Pineda migrated from El Salvador in 2023, a part of an unprecedented wave of hundreds of thousands who arrived on the U.S. border between 2020 and 2025. Her husband and two younger youngsters, alongside along with her mom and brother, fled the nation hoping to flee gang members who harassed and beat her husband at work, she mentioned. Her father had already settled within the U.S.
They discovered a “coyote” who charged 1000’s of {dollars} and requested her mom to place up her land as collateral till the debt was paid off. However once they arrived, they discovered making ends meet troublesome. They shuffled between houses within the San Fernando Valley, staying with kin and generally strangers.
After some time, her husband had regular work in development. Her daughter, now 7, was studying English and loved college. Her 3-year-old son was making pals. Pineda and her sister-in-law had began a meals stand, the place she bought breakfast and pupusas to day laborers close to the House Depot.
On June 19, she rose hours earlier than dawn, dressed and went to her sister-in-law’s condominium. Because the solar rose, they started getting ready the meals and had been promoting it within the parking zone by 6 a.m. She earned about $200 every week from the stand and used the cash to assist purchase groceries and odds and ends for the kids. She had been nervous about heading out that morning.
Two weeks earlier, raids orchestrated by U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino had upended Los Angeles’ immigrant neighborhood.
Round 8:30 a.m. brokers pulled up in an unmarked automobile.
Pineda nonetheless has the surveillance video of the arrest on her mom’s telephone. You’ll be able to barely make her out.
“I couldn’t run as a result of I used to be pregnant,” she mentioned. “They handcuffed me with my fingers within the again, put me within the automobile and took me.”
She arrived on the South Louisiana ICE Processing Middle on June 24. Pineda mentioned there have been medical staffers on website, however no one outfitted to conduct sonograms or any of the conventional care she was accustomed to. To see a physician, she was bused practically three hours every strategy to a medical heart in Monroe, La.
Pineda with Sofia, 7, and Axel Serrano, 3, at their house in Van Nuys.
(Karla Gachet / For The Occasions)
For the primary month, she mentioned, she couldn’t name her household.
Separated from her daughter and son by 1,500 miles and partitions and fences, she needed to get out of there.
“It was actually arduous for her,” she mentioned of her daughter. “Each time she talked to me, she cried.”
She befriended a bunch of seven ladies. To go the time, they weaved bracelets and rings out of plastic baggage and talked about their homeland. She noticed ladies who fought their instances.
After greater than three months, guards instructed her that she was set to see a decide.
“I instructed them I didn’t wish to,” she mentioned. “I had signed my papers” to self-deport to El Salvador.
The decide set her departure date for Oct. 3 and he or she was instructed to rearrange a flight to Los Angeles.
Her household skipped paying the lease and bought her a ticket. It was Sept. 29. Guards dropped her off on the airport.
Days later, she met with immigration officers in Los Angeles. Along with her being pregnant practically full time period, the officers prolonged her departure date to March.
The day is bearing down on her.
“My husband mentioned he gained’t let me go alone,” she mentioned. So she is making an attempt to determine the way to pay for 4 tickets house. And the way they’ll put meals on the desk in El Salvador.
Her mother nonetheless has a plot of land within the nation the place she planted fruit bushes. There are mangoes, guayabas, jocotes and peaches.
And there are additionally the ladies she befriended in detention.
“Estan esperandome,” she mentioned. They’re ready for me.
