A couple from Guatemala is teaming up with the American Civil Liberties Union to seek justice after the woman said she had to give birth while in Border Patrol custody. The ACLU filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general on Wednesday, April 8, asking for the incident, and other cases of alleged mistreatment of pregnant immigrants, to be investigated.
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According to BuzzFeed News, the couple and their two children were asylum-seekers escaping violence and persecution in their home country. The father of the child and his 27-year-old pregnant wife traveled from their home with their two young daughters. After their asylum process was delayed, the family decided they couldn't wait any longer and attempted to cross the border illegally, knowing they would most likely to be arrested by ICE.
The couple was taken in to custody.
The woman told the ACLU she started to feel contractions and pain as they crossed the desert. The couple were taken in by a Border Patrol agent and the complaint states that the woman wasn't feeling well and her husband begged the agent for medical attention for his wife. The complaint says they were instead transported in the agent's car to the Chula Vista Border Patrol Station for processing. The family says they were then given what's called a “rough ride," which is known as an abusive practice that some border agents are said to take part in, in which they purposely drive around recklessly to rough up the detainees.
The woman wasn't granted the right to give birth in a humane way.
The pregnant woman, her husband, and their daughters, ages 2 and 12, were being processed by agents at the Chula Vista Border Patrol Station near San Diego when her pain intensified. The woman and her family told the ACLU that she had to give birth to her baby while standing up, holding on to the side of a trash can inside the Border Patrol station.
The dad heard the baby crying through his wife's pants.
The family also says that the woman was still wearing her pants when it all went down. According to BuzzFeed News, the mom was in a lot of pain and she says she asked the Border Patrol agents for help. She said she was told to sit down and to wait until she and her family were processed. After about half an hour, her husband said he heard their baby crying through her pants so he lowered them and saw the child's head.
The couple is now accusing the agents of abuse.
The couple's story was shared in detail in a complaint filed on Wednesday, April 8, by the ACLU and Jewish Family Service of San Diego with the US Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General. BuzzFeed News obtained the document and in it, the family is accusing the Border Patrol agents involved of abuse and are now demanding an investigation to be conducted by the inspector general. The CBP released a statement following the incident stating, "the mother did not appear to be in distress and did not request any medical attention" but that the medical staff "noticed she was in labor" and "prepared an area for the mother to give birth." Chief Patrol Agent Aaron Heitke added: "Thanks to the medical resources available in our stations, this woman and her child were well cared for and received immediate medical attention. Our agents are well trained to manage the unexpected, and I’m proud of the work they did in caring for this mother."
