In this special episode of My Body. My Pod., Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO Mini Timmaraju joins U.S. Reps. Adelita Grijalva (AZ-07), and Maxine Dexter (OR-03) to expose ICE’s cruel, inhumane, and illegal treatment of women and pregnant people in custody. Recorded in Phoenix, Arizona, following a congressional oversight visit to the Eloy Detention Center by Reps. Dexter, Grijalva, and U.S. Rep Yassamin Ansari (AZ-03), the conversation takes listeners behind the scenes of ICE’s mistreatment of detained people, including 24-year-old Maria Alejandra Valero Brinez. Five months into a high-risk pregnancy, Maria reports experiencing complications, struggling to access regular prenatal care, and fearing another pregnancy loss after previously experiencing a stillbirth. The lawmakers also discuss reports of inadequate access to clean water, adequate food, menstrual products, safe sleeping conditions, and medical care across immigration detention facilities.
In this special episode of My Body. My Pod., Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO Mini Timmaraju joins U.S. Reps. Adelita Grijalva (AZ-07), and Maxine Dexter (OR-03) to expose ICE’s cruel, inhumane, and illegal treatment of women and pregnant people in custody.
Recorded in Phoenix, Arizona, following a congressional oversight visit to the Eloy Detention Center by Reps. Dexter, Grijalva, and U.S. Rep Yassamin Ansari (AZ-03), the conversation takes listeners behind the scenes of ICE’s mistreatment of detained people, including 24-year-old Maria Alejandra Valero Brinez.
Five months into a high-risk pregnancy, Maria reports experiencing complications, struggling to access regular prenatal care, and fearing another pregnancy loss after previously experiencing a stillbirth.
The lawmakers also discuss reports of inadequate access to clean water, adequate food, menstrual products, safe sleeping conditions, and medical care across immigration detention facilities.
These concerns extend beyond Eloy, including reports involving pregnant migrant children who were reportedly transferred to San Benito, Texas—where abortion is banned—in order to deny them abortion care.
“Pregnancy doesn't stop at the detention center door,” says Mini. “Medical emergencies don't wait, and access to reproductive health care should never depend on someone's immigration status or whether they're being held in federal custody.”
ICE has demonstrated a pattern of abuse under the Trump administration. Despite federal policy stating that pregnant and postpartum people should only be detained in limited circumstances, hundreds have been detained and deported.
There have been multiple reports of ICE forcing pregnant people to navigate pregnancy under dangerous and inhumane conditions, denying them basic medical care, including abortion access, and reportedly “losing count” of miscarriages in custody.
This is state-sanctioned reproductive violence.
Together, Mini and Reps. Dexter and Grijalva examine the broader reproductive freedom crisis in immigration detention and beyond—the urgent need for accountability, and what it will take to protect our health, rights, and freedoms.
We strongly condemn the Trump administration’s cruel actions against pregnant people.
Sign our petition demanding Maria's release at reproforall.org/freemaria.
Explore more episode resources: reproforall.org/podEP31
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