ICE Detentions Are Failing Pregnant Women. Again.

A new report from Senator Jon Ossoff's office reveals just how bad the nightmare has become.

By Danielle Han | August 6, 2025 | 5:29pm

Photo: Getty Images Immigration Politics

ICE Detentions Are Failing Pregnant Women. Again.

In 2022, Senator Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) hosted a hearing about his investigation into the medical treatment of women in ICE custody. The findings, he said then, were “extraordinarily disturbing,” “nightmarish and disgraceful,” and “a catastrophic failure by the Federal Government to respect basic human rights.” He launched another investigation in 2024, condemning the “shocking and horrifying picture of pervasive abuse and mistreatment of pregnant women in American prisons and jails.” And just last week, his office released its latest report on the matter–and it reveals just how horrible the nightmare has become.

The findings, based on a monthslong investigation and published by NBC News, cited 510 credible instances of human rights abuses–14 of which were related to the mistreatment of pregnant women. Such offenses included “not receiving adequate medical care and timely checkups, not receiving urgent care when needed, being denied snacks and adequate meals, and being forced to sleep on the floor due to overcrowding.”

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In one case, a 23-year-old woman detained in Georgia said she’d bled for days before being taken to a hospital–where she then miscarried. As NBC helped to report, the woman recounted to her lawyer and her partner that she’d been bleeding heavily for about a week before the facility’s medical staff confirmed that she was pregnant with what would have been her first child. A day after her miscarriage, she was returned to ICE custody. And despite requests for a doctor because she was still in pain, she was only brought to a check-up 11 days after miscarrying.

Other instances of mistreatment include someone “[who] reportedly ‘nearly miscarried twice’ while in ICE custody” and a detainee who, despite “repeatedly requesting medical attention,” was told to “‘just drink water’ instead of receiving an exam.”

“The reports of mistreatment from inside Georgia’s detention facilities matches what we have heard elsewhere. These are not isolated abuses but appear to be part of a sustained pattern of mistreatment and neglect…,” Zain Lakhani, director of Migrant Rights and Justice at the Women’s Refugee Commission, told Jezebel. “We have spoken to deported women who reported being so malnourished that they were unable to lactate, or who were unable to access even urgent medical care.”

While the mistreatment of women in ICE custody stands as a systemic issue, things have only gotten worse under Trump 2.0. The prick-in-command wants to conduct the largest mass deportation in American history, and has been making more arrests than the immigration system can handle. The result has been overcrowded cells, substandard medical care (even by ICE standards), and horrible health impacts.

Still, the DHS is trying to bat away any allegations of wrongdoing. Babbling to NBC in an email, Tricia McLaughlin, the department’s assistant secretary, said, “Any claim that there are subprime conditions at the ICE detention centers are false.” She called it “irresponsible” to report on the detained 23-year-old, saying the claims help to “demoni[ze]” immigration officers. Yes, Tricia. That’s what’s vilifying you guys. Not @DHSgov’s fascism-core dog whistling you’ve got going on there.

Jokes aside, the DHS once again misses the point with dangerous zeal–and a willful incognizance of its ongoing violations. Scrutiny will not let up, however, and we can only imagine worse is yet to come. “ICE has created a black box with little to no oversight or transparency,” explains Lakhani–”but we cannot allow these abuses to happen in the dark.”

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