Attorney: Pregnant woman deported from Atlanta despite medical distress
A Colombian woman who is eight months pregnant was put on a deportation flight at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport Wednesday afternoon, despite being in a state of medical distress, according to a human rights group.
Zharick Daniela Buitrago Ortiz had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in November seeking asylum, but was deported subject to an expedited removal process and not permitted to pursue asylum over an alleged gang affiliation.
According to officials with the Kennedy Human Rights Center, which is providing legal representation to Ortiz, the 21-year-old was experiencing intense, shooting pain in her back and abdomen in the lead-up to the flight’s departure, but was allegedly denied medical care by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
The Center’s lawyers filed a last-minute petition with the federal court in Atlanta to stop the deportation to Colombia, citing “serious risk to her health and safety and that of her unborn child.”
U.S. District Judge Sarah Geraghty sided with Ortiz’s counsel and issued a temporary restraining order, which would have stopped ICE from moving forward with the deportation. But the order was issued too late — roughly three hours after the flight departed, according to her attorneys.
Geraghty’s order also required ICE “to provide her with constitutionally adequate health care” for the duration of her time in custody.
An Atlanta-based ICE spokesperson referred questions about Ortiz to the agency’s El Paso office on Wednesday. A spokesperson there did not respond to questions, or provide additional details about the case.
According to Anthony Enriquez, vice president of U.S. advocacy and litigation at the Kennedy Human Rights Center, federal immigration agents moved to deport Ortiz over an alleged affiliation with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
“Using Tren de Aragua as a boogeyman to deport eight-month-pregnant women in medical distress is farcical,” Enriquez said. “Americans see through the government’s transparent attempts to deflect from its cruel and dangerous treatment of vulnerable people. Enough is enough.”
Had Ortiz given birth in the U.S., her child would have been a U.S. citizen, which could have complicated efforts to remove her. On his first day in office, Trump issued an executive order intended to end birthright citizenship, but lawsuits blocked the policy from taking effect.
A Biden-era policy prevents ICE from arresting or detaining immigrant women who are pregnant or nursing, including up to one year postpartum, except in “very limited circumstances.”
The policy has yet to be formally rescinded by the Trump administration, but multiple reports from civil rights groups indicate it is no longer being followed.
In October, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigration Project and others sent a letter to Homeland Security and U.S. Senate leadership describing interviews with more than a dozen women who spent time in immigrant detention while pregnant. One of them reportedly had a miscarriage while held at South Georgia’s Stewart Detention Center.
In a report released in August by U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff‘s office, outlining hundreds of credible human rights abuses inside immigration detention facilities, investigators highlighted 14 instances of reported mistreatment of pregnant women in custody.
According to that report, an anonymous Department of Homeland Security official reported witnessing pregnant women sleeping on floors in overcrowded intake cells.
The partner of a pregnant woman in custody also reported to the senator’s staff that she had been bleeding for days before being taken to a hospital. Once there, the woman said she was left in a room, alone, to miscarry without water or medical assistance for more than 24 hours.
In another case, a pregnant detainee told the senator’s staff that she’d repeatedly requested medical attention, but was told to “just drink water.” The document also cites reports from attorneys who said their pregnant clients have been waiting for weeks to see a doctor.
In a response to Ossoff’s report, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security accused the Georgia Democrat of “peddling false claims.”
“Pregnant women receive regular prenatal visits, mental health services, nutritional support, and accommodations aligned with community standards of care,” the department’s statement said. “Detention of pregnant women is rare and has elevated oversight and review. No pregnant woman has been forced to sleep on the floor.”
According to the Kennedy Center officials, Ortiz sought medical care at a clinic in Colombia on Friday morning for severe back and stomach pains, and a migraine. They had no additional information about the condition of her baby.
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