A pregnant Venezuelan woman was four months detained in Texas by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when She was returning from buying her wedding dress. The migrant’s case became a new example of the Trump administration’s tightening immigration policy. Isabel Urdaneta Hernández was driving back from McAllen to Dallas with her fiancé, Manuel Alejandro López, when a Border Patrol checkpoint stopped their car changed her life.
According to her cousin Alejandra Urdaneta cnnIsabel and Manuel had traveled to South Texas buy the wedding dress whom they wanted to marry before the birth of their first daughter.
On the way back to Dallas, they encountered an immigration checkpoint in the McAllen area, a type of internal checkpoint common in the Rio Grande Valley.
The family assured that the couple handed over their documents and, after reviewing them, heard the sentence that changed everything: “I’m sorry, but they’re under arrest.”.
They were first taken to a border patrol facility; Then, Isabel was moved to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center. in the valley while Manuel stayed in first place.
The Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), consulted by cnnassured Isabel and Manuel legally registered to the United States, but They did not comply with the conditions of their visas or the approved period of stay.
They’re both Venezuelan, that’s what they have Pending asylum applications and years of residence in the countryAccording to the family, they set up a small baking business and formal jobs there.
Alejandra Urdaneta emphasized this Both have a valid work permit and driver’s license and have no criminal record.beyond minor traffic violations. “Nobody crossed the border irregularly; they arrived by plane and built their lives here,” he said.
The case conflicts with a 2021 ICE internal policy, Policy 11032.4, which directs the agency to do so not to detain, arrest or hold in custody pregnant, postpartum or breastfeeding people for immigration violations.
Exceptions only exist under certain circumstances, e.g Threats to national securityimminent danger to others or certain legal obligations.
This rule also requires medical reports and regular detention for those who remain incarcerated in very few cases.
However, CBP said cnn The has no formal policy restricting custody of pregnant individuals under its controland defended that it guarantees appropriate treatment to those who pass through its facilities.
For the family, the problem is not just legal, but deeply human. His family was counting on it Univision The Isabel sleeps on the floor, doesn’t get enough food and feels like she’s being treated “like a criminal.”.
In recent calls, the young woman said she was receiving medical care but that staff could be harsh and she feared for her health. Effects of stress and delivery conditions on your pregnancy.
At least once, Isabel told her cousin that she was afraid because “I couldn’t feel the baby”which caused alarm among his relatives.
From Dallas, the family Live waiting for every call and assures that she is “scared, she is desperate, she sees deportations every day and is worried about her health and that of her daughter.”
This content was created by a LA NACION team with the support of AI.