US paves way to detain more pregnant women

The Trump administrat ion said Thursday that it ended special considerations to generally release pregnant women charged with being in the United States illegally while their cases wind through immigration court.

U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it scrapped a policy that took effect in August 2016 that pregnant women should be released unless they met limited criteria that required them to be held by law, such as serious criminal histories, or if there were “extraordinary circumstances.”

The new policy, which took effect in December but wasn’t announced until Thursday, gives no blanket special consideration to pregnancy, though the agency says each case will be reviewed individually and women in their third trimester will generally be released.

The move is the latest effort to scrap immigration policies created in the final two years of Barack Obama’s administration. Shortly after Trump took office, rules that generally limited deportations to convicted criminals, public safety threats and recent border crossers were lifted, making anyone in the country illegally vulnerable. Deportation arrests have spiked more than 40 percent under Trump’s watch.

Administration officials said newrules on pregnant women aligned with the president’s executive orders last year for heightened immigration enforcement.

“All across our enforcement portfolio, we’re no longer exempting any individual from being subject to the law,” said Philip Miller, deputy executive associate director of ICE’s enforcement and removal operations.

Women and immigrant advocacy groups, many who have criticized medical care at immigrant detention centers, swiftly condemned the change.

While authorities made clear that it would review cases individually and that officers may consider pregnancy, the new policy shifts the focus more toward detention.