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ACLU Demands Investigation After Migrant Forced to Birth Baby in Border Patrol Custody

HeadlineApr 09, 2020

The American Civil Liberties Union is demanding an investigation into the Border Patrol’s abuse of pregnant migrants in their custody. The complaint filed Wednesday details how a Guatemalan woman gave birth at the Chula Vista Border Patrol station near San Diego, standing up, holding onto a trash can while still wearing her pants. She had pleaded with Border Patrol agents for help, but they reportedly told her to sit down and wait to be processed. She had been detained with her husband and two young daughters in February as they hoped to apply for asylum in the U.S.

In related news, the Trump administration has quietly shut down the country’s asylum system for the first time in decades using an obscure public health law to justify one of the most aggressive U.S.-Mexico border crackdowns amid the pandemic.

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