Pregnant migrant girls detained at the Texas center have been criticized for inadequate care

Amna Nawaz:

Since last July, the Trump administration has sent all unaccompanied pregnant minors apprehended by immigration enforcement to one group shelter in South Texas.

Some of the department’s child welfare officials object to the policy, saying the facility lacks the specialized care the girls need.

Yesterday I spoke with Mark Betancourt, a journalist who spent six months reporting to break this story for both the California Newsroom and the Texas Newsroom, two public-media collaborations.

Mark, hello. Thank you for being here.

MARC BETANCOURT, CALIFORNIA NEWROOM AND TEXAS NEWROOM: Thanks for having me, Amna.

Amna Nawaz:

Let’s start with the girls. Tell us a little about who we’re talking about. How old are they, where did they come from, and how were they placed in US government custody?

Mark Betancourt:

So, most often, what happens is that when children cross the border unaccompanied, meaning they’re not with a parent or guardian, they’re transferred from CBP into the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is the Office of Refugee Resettlement. It is under the Department of Health and Human Services.

They then essentially distribute them to shelters around the country to hold them until they are released to their sponsors, who are often family members. So the goal is to actually hold them for as little time as possible so they can then be released while the herders are screened.

So when pregnant girls are brought in, these are children who are under 18, so they are all minors. They are usually placed in places with nearby medical facilities and trained staff who can handle often complex pregnancies.

This is what is usually supposed to happen under this process.

Amna Nawaz:

Some of the girls I reported were as young as 13 years old. Is this correct? Were many of them assaulted and raped during their trip to the United States?

Mark Betancourt:

This is correct.

So these girls are between 13 and 17 years old. A source at the resettlement office said that about half of them may have been pregnant as a result of rape. This is obviously a major concern. These girls have gone through very traumatic experiences. In some cases, they were raped during the trip or in their home countries before they came here, and so they became pregnant.

But often, they are also arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the interior of the country and separated from their families. So, although we don’t know the exact situation of the girls who have been placed in the shelter now, this is certainly a concern. The trauma they have experienced further complicates their pregnancy.

Amna Nawaz:

So your reporting is based on conversations you have had with a number of people who currently hold responsible positions within this agency. Why did they decide to talk to you? What concerns did they share?

Mark Betancourt:

So they decided to talk to me because I think they were concerned that it wasn’t safe to put these girls here.

Their primary concern was that they heard from experts at the Office of Refugee Resettlement, that this shelter was not set up to handle the complicated pregnancies of a 13-year-old girl, and also that the area where the shelter was located – in the south Texas Rio Grande Valley – had limited health care, had limited obstetric care.

So, especially in emergency situations, it can be really difficult to get these babies the care they need, depending on what could happen during their pregnancy. So the RSO officials who spoke to me were really concerned, and felt like they needed to speak up, given the lack of response from leadership within the organization.

Amna Nawaz:

We reached out to HHS, which oversees ORR, the agency in charge here, to ask about the report and request comment. A few key points from their statement.

They say:

“To be clear, we are not sending all unaccompanied pregnant minors there” to this facility. “There are others in other facilities as well.” They also say they make these placements based on child care best practices. “Each child is placed in an environment that meets his or her medical, developmental, and safety needs.”

Is this consistent with your sources and reports?

Mark Betancourt:

no. This is not at all what my sources inside ORR said.

In fact, they are careful to say that ORR’s mission is to take care of children. It is designed to have the best interests of the child first and foremost. And they said, this is the opposite of — this is the opposite of what you would do if this was your job. You wouldn’t send them somewhere where they can’t get proper care, especially if people within the organization are telling you not to.

But in terms of what they’re saying about the fact that not all girls are sent there, my understanding is that the guidance is that all new admissions, girls who are entering ORR’s care for the first time, as long as ORR knows they’re pregnant, they will be sent there. That directive still stands, according to people inside ORR.

Amna Nawaz:

There is another aspect of this that you include in your reporting. I’ve spoken with advocates who say this is a deliberate policy to move them to Texas specifically to avoid access to abortion care or abortion services if the girls want it.

Why did they think that and did you find evidence of that?

Mark Betancourt:

So we couldn’t find some sort of direct evidence, documenting that that was the reason behind the decision, but current and former ORR officials who know this system very well said they couldn’t think of any other reason.

Also, the first Trump administration tried to do exactly that, and tried to prevent girls from having abortions while in ORR’s care. So this seems to be just a continuation of this policy. This is exactly what some officials I spoke to expected, given the behavior of the first Trump administration.

And now, of course, after Dobbs, after Roe v. Wade was no longer a bar to that, it became legally possible for them to restrict access to abortion under the Constitution.

Amna Nawaz:

People can of course read your full reports online.

Mark Betancourt from the California Newsroom and the Texas Newsroom, thanks for being here.

Mark Betancourt:

Thank you so much for having me.