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ICE Now Detains Pregnant Women Because of Trump's Executive Order
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is ending its practice of automatically releasing pregnant women from detention. This is because of Trump's executive order “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States,” which requires stricter enforcement of immigration laws. Previously, the agency’s general practice was to release women from detention who were pregnant.
ICE will no longer automatically release pregnant immigrants from detention, marking the latest effect of Trump’s efforts.... The new policy was outlined in an internal ICE memo.... It replaces a previous policy, put in place under former President Obama, which said ICE would not detain pregnant women except in “extraordinary circumstances.”
....after Trump issued an executive order in January 2017 that required immigration officers to target all undocumented immigrants, the agency decided to change the way it dealt with pregnant women.
This new policy means more pregnant women will spend time in detention.
Since at least 2011, ICE had implemented a policy that generally favored releasing pregnant women from detention..... provided exemptions for women facing mandatory detention or security threats. In practice, ICE detained more than 500 pregnant women in 2016, the last full year the policy was in effect.
With the change, outlined in a Dec. 14 directive signed by acting ICE Director Thomas Homan, ICE will no longer presumptively release pregnant women from detention. It supersedes a 2016 memo, also signed by Homan, that codified the policy against detaining pregnant women except under “extraordinary circumstances or the requirement of mandatory detention.”
“This new ICE policy memo confirms our fears that the government is continuing its barbaric policy of detaining pregnant women despite substantial evidence that detention of this particularly vulnerable population has been linked to serious health implications to the mother and unborn child and also constitutes a significant barrier to receiving a meaningful day in court,” said Katie Shepherd, who does legal advocacy for asylum-seeking women at the American Immigration Council.
Sources:
http://time.com/5221737/ice-detain-pregnant-immigrants-donald-trump/