Groups demand probe into treatment of pregnant migrants

Civil rights groups want Homeland Security to investigate the practice of sending pregnant migrants back over the border to wait out their asylum claims.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Texas Civil Rights project filed the complaint with the agency’s inspector general. It details the cases of more than a dozen women, some more than eight-months pregnant, who were returned to Mexico after seeking asylum in the United States.

More than 45-thousand migrants have been returned to Mexico since January under the ” wait in Mexico ” policy. The complaint cites numerous reports of drug cartels threatening, robbing, and kidnapping asylum seekers. Attorneys have filed multiple lawsuits in an attempt to stop the practice.

The latest complaint argues vulnerable migrants, like pregnant women, should be excluded from the policy. It claims the practice denies mothers-to-be need the special care they need.