Minara Helen: A 21-year-old woman who is eight months pregnant and in a state of medical distress was deported Wednesday afternoon, a human rights attorney said, despite a court order, issued too late, to keep her out of the air.
“We are trying to get her the medical attention she needs immediately,” said Anthony Enriquez, vice-president of US advocacy and litigation at the Kennedy Human Rights Center, whose client, Zharick Daniela Buitrago Ortiz, was sent back to Colombia. US district court judge Sarah Geraghty held a hearing on Wednesday afternoon and issued a temporary restraining order at about 6pm, enjoining ICE from deporting Ortiz before 30 January and requiring ICE to provide adequate medical care to her while she was in their custody.
“By the time she issued that order, the government had already boarded her onto a plane,” Enriquez said. “She is now in Colombia.” Ortiz’s mother told Enriquez that her daughter remained in a state of physical distress and was considering options for medical attention.
ICE transported Ortiz from detention in Louisiana to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta international airport before deporting her, which Enriquez finds curious.
“There are serious concerns about what kind of company would allow someone at this late stage of pregnancy and distress to fly,” he said.
A spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Atlanta verified earlier on Wednesday that the deportation was imminent and the woman was at the airport, and referred a request for comment to the agency’s El Paso office. The Guardian has reached out for details. Ortiz and her mother crossed the border in Texas in November, seeking asylum, Enriquez said. They told an immigration judge in a “credible fear” hearing that is part of an official asylum application that Ortiz’s father had been killed after publicly confronting corruption.
“The mother was deemed to have a credible fear interview and permitted to file an asylum application,” Enriquez said. “Our client was not and was given an order of expedited removal.”
ICE under the Trump administration regularly detains and deports pregnant women, he said. A child born on US soil is automatically a US citizen by law, even though Donald Trump in his second term in the White House is trying to change that right and it is an issue before the US supreme court. Such birthright citizenship rights complicate deportation processes.
“There is an existing policy that pregnant women normally shouldn’t be detained by ICE,” Enriquez said. “That policy, although it exists on paper still, it’s not being applied, and so we think generally speaking this aligns with a policy to detain and deport pregnant women as soon as possible.” Ortiz’s mother told Enriquez that her client had shooting pain in her abdomen and her back, and is suffering nausea and vomiting. “She has asked for medical care and has been denied it. So she is not currently receiving the medical care that she requires,” Enriquez said.
Questions have been raised about the quality of medical care for pregnant detainees since the Trump administration took over. Civil rights leaders say pregnant women have reported bleeding, miscarriages, being shackled and other instances of medical neglect while in US immigration custody.
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