ACLU sends letter to CBP amid new evidence of mistreating pregnant people
WASHINGTON (KYMA, KECY) - The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sent a letter to the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Acting Commissioner Troy Miller in light of new evidence of CBP agents mistreating pregnant people.
In the letter, sent Tuesday, April 25, the ACLU readdresses their demands for CBP to strictly limit detention of pregnant, postpartum, nursing people, and their families to the minimum time once they are ready to enter care networks in the United States. They previously made these demands since April 2022.
Tuesday's letter also saw multiple unaddressed letters from advocacy groups, including an October 2022 letter signed by 130 people and over 10,000 messages people sent to former CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus.
In addition to the ACLU, 180 advocacy organizations, medical professionals and others signed off on the letter. These include the Jewish Family Service of San Diego, the Center for Immigration Law and Police (CILP) at the UCLA School of Law, and the ACLU branches of San Diego & Imperial Counties and Texas.
“All people deserve safe and adequate reproductive health care, including those seeking their legal right to asylum in the U.S.” said Kate Clark, Esq., Senior Director of Immigration Services at Jewish Family Service of San Diego. “It’s past time for CBP to stop perpetuating avoidable harm and heed the demands of medical professionals, advocacy orgs and the thousands of individuals who have called for change.”
Felicia Gomez, Immigrants' Rights Senior Policy Advocate for the ACLU San Diego & Imperial Counties expressed similar sentiments stating, “CBP must expedite the processing of people who are pregnant, postpartum, and/or nursing, and their families, to minimize the time they are in CBP custody. The only way to ensure migrants receive the reproductive care they need and deserve is for CBP to release them, so they can pursue their immigration cases.”
If you want to read the letter, then click here.
