Texas

ACLU Files Complaint Against Government Returning Pregnant Asylum-Seekers to Mexico

A 22-year-old Guatemalan woman who is five months pregnant told the ACLU that three days after being returned to Mexico she was hospitalized and treated for an infection and dehydration, according to the complaint

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint “demanding an immediate end” to the government turning away pregnant asylum-seekers under the Trump administration’s remain in Mexico policy, NBC News reports.

The Department of Homeland Security “has returned a significant number of pregnant women to Mexico … exposing them to further harm” in dangerous border towns, the ACLU of Texas and the ACLU Border Rights Center said in a complaint Thursday. The complaint, filed to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General, called for a full investigation and an immediate end to the practice.

“Pregnant women should never have to worry about their safety or their health during pregnancy, and yet this is the situation [Customs and Border Protection] is forcing upon these expecting mothers,” Astrid Dominguez, director of the ACLU Border Rights Center, said in a statement.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to request for comment on the complaint.

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