Biden to soften migrant controls over pregnancy
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration will ease restrictions placed on people in the country illegally who are pregnant, postpartum or nursing, the latest change in its broader efforts to soften immigration detention policies put in place by former President Donald Trump.
Under the new policy, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers generally will not detain or arrest people who are pregnant or nursing or who had a baby within the previous year, according to a draft of the plan shared with the New York Times and a person familiar with the policy. The language in the policy will be genderneutral, acknowledging that transgender men can give birth — another departure from past directives.
The number of pregnant immigrants in detention increased sharply under Trump, who reversed a policy put in place in 2016 by President Barack Obama that called for detaining them only under extraordinary circumstances.
Since 2016, ICE has arrested pregnant immigrants more than 4,000 times, according to internal government data shared with the Times. The number in custody has fallen more recently, partly because of measures to reduce the number of people in congregate settings who are at greater risk of contracting COVID19. There are currently fewer than 20 such immigrants in custody, staying for an average of three days.
Immigration advocates welcomed President Biden’s new policy, which they said went even further than the 2016 version that was issued when he was vice president. But like Biden’s other immigration policies to date — all of which have been made through exec
utive orders or directives and not codified in law — protections for pregnant and postpartum immigrants could disappear under a future administration.
“Any change in presidential administration can materially change people’s lives, especially immigrants and folks who are kind of trying to navigate their way through the immigration system,” said Breanne Palmer, a lawyer with UndocuBlack Network, which advocates for Black
people currently and formerly in the country illegally.
“People who endure detention when they’re pregnant or nursing, you know, they really have very little recourse,” Palmer said.
Although the new policy will affect only a small number of immigrants, it could rankle some conservatives who previously supported an effort by Trump to nullify the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship, in part to deter migrants from trying
to get into the country to deliver babies.
The new policy will not apply to migrants in the custody of Customs and Border Protection. Border Patrol agents are typically the first U.S. law enforcement officials to encounter migrants who cross the border, and they typically hold them for only a few days before transferring them to ICE custody.