The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained more pregnant women and teenagers during last fall and winter than in any other period of the previous year. At the same time, the agency lost track of how many of them suffered a miscarriage while in its custody.
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Documents obtained by The Guardian newspaper, following a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and a subsequent lawsuit, show that ICE recorded 18 miscarriages between January and September 2025. However, the immigration agency does not have figures on pregnancy losses after October 3 of that year.
In interviews with the British media and in testimonies provided by their lawyers, several women recounted persistent pain and bleeding without follow-up after losing their pregnancies.
The cases of Anabell, Laura, and Angie, detained in Kentucky, Texas, and California, add to those of eight women who reported medical negligence in Dilley, Texas. Lawyers and human rights organizations maintain that the U.S. administration stopped complying with a 2021 directive that limits the detention of pregnant people.
The increase in detentions coincided with large-scale immigration operations in Minneapolis, Chicago, and other U.S. cities. According to the agency’s own records, in October there were at least 87 pregnant women and teenagers detained, and in November the number rose to 101.
ICE attributed the data gap to a change in its medical record system. The agency terminated its contract with the Veterans Affairs Financial Services Center (VA-FSC) and hired Acentra Health, a private company in Virginia. Because of this, the entity explained, the processing of medical claims was delayed for months.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Chandler Rebel, initially stated that the agency recorded miscarriages in monthly reports. He later confirmed that it does not have data for the period between October 2025 and June 2026.
DHS had never before acknowledged losing count of miscarriages, not even when senators requested it.
“It suits the administration that ICE cannot report how many women suffered miscarriages,” said Faisal Al-Juburi, co-director of the immigration humanitarian organization Raíces, to the British newspaper. “When something of such magnitude is not recorded, you don’t have to face the reality of the consequences your own policies have generated,” he said.
Anabell, 35, a Nicaraguan asylum seeker, did not know she was pregnant until she was detained at a mandatory ICE appointment on February 25. She was transferred to the Campbell detention center in Kentucky, where a medical exam confirmed the pregnancy. “It was a surprise,” she said. “The only thing I could do was cry.”
She was not given blood tests nor scheduled for an ultrasound. A month later she began bleeding and an agent told her she had to wait. She was urgently transferred to an emergency room, handcuffed to a hospital bed, and informed that she was no longer pregnant. ICE has repeatedly refused to release Anabell’s medical records. She remains detained in Campbell, where she has continued bleeding and vomiting, and has lost about 13 kilos.
Laura, 21, was in the second trimester of a high-risk pregnancy when she was transferred to the Dilley detention center along with her two-year-old son. A doctor at the center determined that her condition required specialized care. “Despite this clinical determination, the center’s administration has neither approved nor scheduled the consultation for me,” she stated in a Raíces document.
Angie, 26, found out she was pregnant weeks after entering the Mesa Verde detention center in California. Shortly after, she woke up expelling abundant brown fluid. Medical staff assured her that the miscarriage was not her fault.
“These incarcerated women do not receive the prenatal visits they are entitled to. They also do not access prenatal check-ups for high-risk pregnancies when they need them. And, if they suffer a miscarriage, the medical care they receive is minimal or nonexistent,” said Deborah Ottenheimer, obstetrician-gynecologist at Physicians for Human Rights.
A 2021 federal directive instructs ICE to avoid detaining pregnant, postpartum, or breastfeeding individuals, unless the law prohibits their release or there are “exceptional circumstances.” The rule also requires monitoring and documenting their health status.
DHS assured that it continues to comply with the instruction. “The 2021 directive remains in effect,” said Rebel, the DHS spokesperson. “Pregnant women receive regular prenatal visits, mental health services, nutritional support, and housing conditions consistent with community care standards,” he assured.
However, court records and interviews with congress members and lawyers consulted by The Guardian indicate that the administration has practically stopped complying with the directive. Many of the detainees were asylum seekers in the United States and had attended all their immigration check appointments, posing no flight risk.
Additionally, several of the eight women examined alleged that language barriers hindered their access to medical care.
Senior attorney at the Robert and Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center, Sarah Decker, explained that many of her clients are detained in Basile, the detention center with the most pregnant women in all of the United States, according to ICE.
“I have yet to meet any pregnant or postpartum person who, in my judgment, meets the definition of ‘extraordinary circumstances’,” she stated. The lawyer added that ICE is fully aware of the situation and that the agency would be seeking to hide medical negligence in those centers.
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