U.S. Customs and Border Protection quietly withdraw protections for pregnant women and babies
American customs and Border Protection (CBP) quietly revokes internal policies that aim to protect some of the most vulnerable people, including pregnant women, babies, older people and those with severe medical conditions.
The decision was outlined in a May 5 memorandum signed by Acting Commissioner Pete Flores, eliminating four Biden-era policies formulated in the past three years. These policies are designed to address the long-term failure of CBP, in the view that adequate care is provided to the most risky detainees – in some cases proving deadly.
The May 5 memorandum was issued internally to top institutional leadership but was not publicly announced.
The CBP justifies rollbacks in a memorandum that points to legacy policies related to care and custody – a policy that is “outdated” and “unaligned” with the agency’s current implementation priorities.
The policies that are now abolished set standards for detainees with increased medical needs – for example, keeping water and food for pregnant women in holding facilities, ensuring privacy of breastfeeding mothers, and requiring diapers and unsuccessful formulas. They also instructed agents to deal with high-risk individuals as soon as possible to limit the time of detention.
“It’s shocking, it’s just an extension of the government’s attempt to implement a cruel culture,” said Sarah Mehta, deputy director of government affairs at the ACLU Equality Department. The abolition of the policy, she said, “is an annoying statement about how this administration thinks and cares about people with children.”
CBP did not immediately respond to Wired’s request for comment.
The CBP is one of the world’s largest law enforcement agencies, primarily responsible for arresting and detaining individuals who have unauthorized people across the U.S. border. While Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) oversees long-term detention and deportation procedures, the CBP handled the earliest stages of custody, when immigrants were detained and processed, which repeatedly criticized bad health services and overcrowded criticisms in short-term facilities
In January, the Senate Judiciary Committee released a nasty report revealing dysfunction in CBP medical action. The investigation revealed that patients had prolonged discomfort, improper use of medical records systems, and ambiguous or non-existent guidance on the treatment of children, pregnant women and others with complex medical needs.
The report was the cause of death by 8-year-old Anadith Danay Reyes Álvarez, who died in May 2023 at the CBP plant in Harlingen, Texas. The Panamanian girl reportedly had a history of heart disease and sickle cell anemia and she went to seek help with her mother. Both are ignored. She died in custody and spent the last few hours in a facility where staff were unequipped (and seemed reluctant) to provide intensive care.
“Just in a letter to the Trump administration, I have serious concerns about transparency, accountability and humane treatment of detained individuals, especially in light of repeated detention abuse and inadequate health care reports,” Dick Durbin, chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, told Wired. Instead of taking action to correct the curriculum, the Trump administration has revoked several internal policies aimed at protecting some of the most vulnerable people in CBP custody, including pregnant women, children, older people and those suffering from severe medical conditions. This is unacceptable. We are a value that should be represented among vulnerable groups under the custody of our government. ”
Policy reversals have defined the Trump administration’s immigration strategy, from attempting to revoke the status of 500,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, and Venezuela who reside in the United States to clearing student visas. In January, the day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Department of Homeland Security overturned a Biden-era policy that prohibited ice and CBP officials from arresting people in “protected areas”, including schools, places of worship and hospitals.
According to transaction records, ice detention centers climbed about 47,928 in April, and sales of transaction records access clearinghouses dropped sharply, dropping to levels not seen in decades.
According to the national standards for national transport, escort, detention and search (TEDS), its personnel will continue to follow the broader standards and remain bound by the Flores Agreement, which requires children to be granted to safety and sanitation areas. The Trump administration has previously argued that original settlements did not require children to be allowed to sleep or wash with soap.
