Woman with high-risk pregnancy fears stillbirth in Arizona ICE detention

Maria Valero Brinez, 24, who is five months pregnant, said Friday she's previously had a stillbirth and is experiencing the same complication in her current high-risk pregnancy.

"I fear for my life and my baby's," Valero Brinez told the Arizona Daily Star Friday, in a message written in Spanish and sent through a prison-messaging app. "I have already suffered the loss of a child, and it is the worst thing a human being can experience. I don't have the medical care I need."

U.S. Reps. Adelita Grijalva and Yassamin Ansari, both Arizona Democrats, and U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter, an Oregon Democrat, visited Eloy Wednesday, to meet with Valero Brinez and another detained woman. 

Valero Brinez has not received adequate medical care for her high-risk pregnancy at Eloy, the legislators said in a Thursday media release on the visit, coordinated by advocacy group Reproductive Freedom for All.

"She has experienced spotting and reported that she has to throw herself on the ground and plead for attention in order to receive medical care," the Congress members said.

When she did get to see a doctor, Valero Brinez was told she has a "low-lying placenta," the same condition she said led to a stillbirth three years ago and that also puts her at risk of hemorrhage.

"Despite having a high-risk pregnancy, she said she has not been able to receive images from ultrasounds or other information about her and her baby’s condition. Maria fears for their safety and well-being, especially given the lack of information about her pregnancy," the lawmakers' release said. "She is also afraid to express any emotion about her current condition, as detainees are often placed into solitary confinement if they show any signs of emotional distress."

Valero Brinez also said the tap water at Eloy is dirty and tastes bad, a concern echoed by dozens of Eloy detainees. She said Eloy detainees are given a cooler full of ice and have to wait for it to melt to have water that doesn't smell. But the cooler water often has bugs or hair in it.

"While private contractors rake in billions of taxpayer dollars, they are denying the most vulnerable individuals — including pregnant people — their most basic necessities, including medical care, clean drinking water, and adequate food," Grijalva said in the Thursday statement. "These corporations are profiting off human suffering, and the Trump administration is footing the bill with our tax dollars. Maria, as well as all pregnant people in detention, deserve dignity, proper medical care, and immediate release."

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has not responded to the Star's query about Valero Brinez's claims, nor the Star's questions about why Valero Brinez has to be held in civil ICE detention, rather than released on humanitarian parole while her immigration case proceeds.

The Star reported in July on the rising number of pregnant, nursing and postpartum women being detained in ICE detention under Trump's second administration, despite a 2021 ICE policy directive advising against detaining those women, except in "exceptional" circumstances or when required by law.

The Star's report focused on two pregnant women who both had to be hospitalized while detained in Arizona ICE facilities, due to complications of their pregnancies.

Valero Brinez, also the mother of a 6-year-old boy, had valid employment authorization, a pending asylum claim and no criminal conviction, the Congress members said in a news release. She was living in Mesa before immigration authorities detained her in August. 

Valero Brinez also told lawmakers she didn't get antibiotics after she had a dental abscess that led to a tooth extraction. "Untreated bacterial infections have the potential to cause miscarriages," the legislators' statement said.

They also cited the case of Haitian national Emmanuel Damas, who was detained at Arizona's Florence Correctional Center and died from sepsis in March, after an untreated tooth infection.

Rep. Dexter of Oregon is one of six Democratic doctors in Congress. She said Valero Brinez and her baby's lives are at risk in ICE detention.

"She must be released immediately," Dexter said in a statement. "DHS is refusing basic human and civil rights to the people in these despicable facilities and shows zero concern for the lives of people in them. Pregnant women and children do not belong in ICE detention."

CoreCivic response

For-profit prison company CoreCivic, which operates Eloy, denied Valero Brinez's claims.

"The water in our facilities is clean and safe. It comes from the same municipal sources used by the surrounding communities," an unidentified CoreCivic spokesperson said in a Thursday email.

In a departure from its typical practice, CoreCivic would not provide a named source for its response to the Star's questions about Valero Brinez's claims. CoreCivic insisted the company's spokesperson be identified as "CoreCivic Public Affairs" and would not explain the change in media policy.

Valero Brinez also said she wasn't getting enough food, echoing the complaints of the two pregnant women the Star reported on in July.

Valero Brinez said she's supposed to get double portions, as an accommodation for her pregnancy, but even that isn't enough. One staffer refuses to give her the larger portion while on duty, the lawmakers relayed in their statement.

CoreCivic dismissed the complaints, saying detainees receive "three nutritious meals a day" and denying an employee would withhold the larger food portion.

CoreCivic would not answer the Star's query about whether it can safely care for pregnant detainees, nor whether pregnant women should be held in ICE detention, which is civil — not criminal — detention and up to ICE's discretion.

"CoreCivic does not take positions on federal immigration or detention policy. Decisions about who is detained and for how long rest entirely with the federal government," the unnamed spokesperson said.

Rep. Ansari called the treatment of people detained at Eloy "inhumane" and "unconscionable."

Private companies like CoreCivic are seeing soaring profits from the Trump administration's focus on detaining as many people as possible, regardless of whether they have a criminal history or pose a public threat.

“All the while, the Trump Administration is pouring billions into ICE as private prison corporations like CoreCivic and GEO Group profit from detention," Ansari said. "The level of cruelty and corruption is abundantly clear. This is a profound failure of human dignity, and we will hold this Administration accountable."