Border Patrol Agents Waited Outside A Woman’s Hospital Room As She Gave Birth, Intending To Deport Her
Her lawyer says that she’s safe from deportation for now, but that her Fifth Amendment rights were violated.
After wandering through the desert for two days, a Guatemalan woman gave birth in an Arizona hospital. Border Patrol agents stood mere feet away, hoping to quickly deport her under the Trump administration’s “expedited removal” policy.
The woman was apprehended by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) in the Arizona desert last Monday, after CBP claims she crossed the border from Mexico. On Wednesday, she was brought to Tucson Medical Center, where she gave birth with CBP agents posted outside of her room.
Luis Campos, a lawyer representing the woman who he identified as “Erika,” says that he was denied access to the hospital and his client, violating her Fifth Amendment rights.
CBP agents, Campos said, blocked him from entering the hospital room, saying he needed a signed G-28 form, which notifies authorities when a lawyer represents a client in an immigration case. When Campos presented the form, which just needed Erika’s signature, the agents said that neither him nor a hospital employee were allowed to bring the form to her to sign.
“There was no regard for due process,” Campos told CNN.
The Trump administration has been repeatedly accused of violating due process in deportation proceedings. Last month, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sent three mothers and their children to Honduras, without informing them that their children, who are U.S. citizens, had a right to remain in the country.
Erika initially faced “expedited removal” from the country. When a person is arrested by CBP or ICE, they typically are able to present their case to an immigration judge before being deported. Expedited removal allows for CBP or ICE to deport a person suspected of being undocumented, without ever seeing a judge, according to the National Immigration Law Center. The policy has been in place since 1996, and was typically used for people within 100 miles of the border, or within two weeks of their arrival into the U.S. The Trump administration has expanded its use, however, intending to wield it against any immigrant who cannot prove they have been in the country continuously for two years.
Campos argued that expedited removal would have put the health of both Erika and her newborn child at risk.
On Friday, Erika was issued a Notice to Appear, staving off deportation for the time being. She is currently in ICE custody, along with her child. Campos said that public pressure from the local community on authorities was integral to giving his client the chance to present her case to a judge.
“She is clearly subject to removal, but she may have viable defenses to assert if given the opportunity,” he told the Arizona Daily Star.
CBP maintains that Erika’s rights were at no point violated. A CBP spokesperson said that she had no right to an attorney before receiving the Notice to Appear, and once it was issued, she was given the chance to meet with Campos.
“At all times, agents followed the law and adhered to CBP procedures,” the spokesperson said. “No entitlements were denied.”
Erika now faces deportation to Guatemala, and the eventual choice to bring her child, who is a U.S. citizen, with her. While immigration authorities say she has the option to leave her child behind, Campos says that since she has no friends or family in U.S., taking her child with her is “clearly no choice at all.”
Erika is seeking asylum in the U.S. out of fear of violence in Guatemala, complicating the decision immensely.
“Given that the terrible prospect of the violence she faced in the home country, we would be exposing a US citizen child newborn to that same kind of threat,” Campos told CNN.
