ICE is Shutting Pregnant Girls in a Facility With Inadequate Care, in an Abortion-Banned State

"Since the summer, Trump's cruel deportation campaign has been apparently stuffing more than a dozen pregnant girls-some who are as young as 13, and at least half of whom got pregnant because they were raped-into a facility in San Benito, Texas, in accordance with a senior directive. And not only are employees concerned that the shelter is medically inadequate for the girls' needs, but the move seems to be a deliberately malicious plan to place them in Texas, home the country's strictest abortion ban."

""Per the direction of Chief of Staff, Matt O'Neill Levine, as of [July 22, 2025] we should be placing any pregnant children into the San Benito program moving forward," reads an email sent by Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) Acting Director Angie Salazar, which was obtained by the Texas Tribune. According to seven ORR sources who also spoke to the outlet -and remained anonymous out of fear of retribution-various ORR staff members are also worried that the shelter is only "one-high risk pregnancy away from catastrophe." At the time of writing, several of the girls who have been detained have given birth, and are imprisoned with their infants."

""These girls are experiencing high-risk pregnancies and are some of the most medically vulnerable people in detention," Zain Lakhani, the director of migrant rights and justice at the Women's Refugee Commission, told Jezebel. "Placing them in a facility that federal officials themselves say lacks necessary specialized care puts their lives and the lives of their babies at risk.""

Since the summer, more than a dozen pregnant migrant girls, some as young as 13 and at least half reportedly impregnated by rape, have been placed in a San Benito, Texas facility under a senior Department of Health and Human Services directive. ORR staff express concern that the shelter lacks specialized medical care for high-risk pregnancies and warn it is 'one-high risk pregnancy away from catastrophe.' Several girls have already given birth and remain detained with their infants. The placement follows an email citing direction from Chief of Staff Matt O'Neill Levine and appears intended to limit access to abortion under Texas law.

Read at Jezebel