Juana Villegas was 9 months pregnant and never pictured herself as a mom-to-be behind bars. She was taken in for a routine traffic violation that is normally taken care of by a simple citation. This violation (of which she was later cleared) was handled by immigration authorized local police and she was locked up in a jail in her state. Taken to the hospital in chains, she went through labor with a sheriff’s officer standing guard in her hospital room, where one of her feet was cuffed to the bed most of the time. She talks of her pain after giving birth, “The nurse brought me a breast pump… she asked permission for me to take it to jail… again the sheriff said, no.” Watch Juana’s story and take action to ensure that the U.S. government stops the continued use of local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law.
Restore Fairness
287G | Deportation | Detention | Due Process | Enforcement | Fair Day in Court | Family | Immigration | Video
“Restore Fairness” produced by Breakthrough in association with 26 leading organizations, calls for the U.S. government to bring back due process and fairness to the immigration system. The video features the powerful voices of Congresswomen Zoe Lofgren and Lucille Roybal-Allard, Judges Dana Marks, Bruce Einhorn, civil society leaders Anthony Romero, Donald Kerwin, Karen Narasaki and … More »
3 Responses to “Juana Villegas: A Pregnant Woman Detained”
so unfair…….it seems that there is a lot of people out there with no feelings…..we need a change and we need it now.
[...] cans and bathe in rivers for several months. Luckily, his mother found him several months later. Or Juana Villegas, who was driving in Nashville (within Davidson County’s 287(g) jurisdiction) when she was [...]
Read this trackback on the original site.[...] to an ICE detention center and later deported. Another lawsuit has been filed on behalf of Juana Villegas after she was detained and shackled to a bed while giving [...]
Read this trackback on the original site.