Daijiworld Media Network – Washington
Washington, Jul 31: A Guatemalan asylum seeker and nursing mother has been detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after being arrested in Tennessee, prompting civil rights organisations to file a complaint alleging violations of ICE's own detention policies.
The woman, identified under the pseudonym Maria Pérez to protect her identity, was arrested in May while preparing to take her two young daughters to a doctor's appointment in Nashville. She is now being held at an ICE detention facility in Louisiana, nearly 700 miles from her family.
According to advocacy groups, Pérez fled Guatemala after experiencing severe domestic violence and had been seeking asylum in the United States. She has no criminal history and is the mother of a 10-month-old infant she had been breastfeeding at the time of her arrest, as well as a two-year-old daughter with Down syndrome.
Katie Blankenship, founder and managing attorney of Sanctuary of the South, described the arrest as traumatic.
"A mother getting her children into car seats to go to a doctor's appointment is just ripped away from her children. It's a mother's worst fear," she said.
Sanctuary of the South and the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition filed a civil rights complaint on Wednesday with the Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General and other federal agencies. The complaint is supported by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Louisiana, the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organisation and Amnesty International.
The complaint alleges that Pérez's detention violates ICE policy, which generally prohibits the arrest or detention of pregnant, postpartum or nursing women except in exceptional circumstances, such as cases involving national security or public safety concerns.
Advocates said that since Pérez's detention, her two daughters have been cared for by a neighbour because the family has no other support network in the area.
Responding to the case, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said pregnant and nursing women in ICE custody are "exceedingly rare" and that those detained receive appropriate prenatal care, mental health support, nutritional assistance and other accommodations. However, the department did not explain why Pérez was detained.
According to the complaint, ICE agents arrived at Pérez's home on May 19 while executing a federal warrant for the father of her children, who is facing separate federal charges. Although Pérez was not named in the warrant or the subject of the investigation, advocates said she was taken into custody while placing her children in the car for a medical appointment.
DHS, however, said Pérez was detained during the execution of the federal warrant and alleged that she had previously faced charges for falsely claiming US citizenship. The department also stated that she chose to leave her children with another adult present at the residence.
Pérez's legal team has since filed a request for humanitarian parole as well as a federal habeas corpus petition seeking her release.
Civil rights groups have criticised the detention, arguing that it has unnecessarily separated a mother from her young children and placed the family's welfare at risk. They have called for her immediate release on humanitarian grounds.