A 21-year-old pregnant mom has been detained, alongside together with her toddler son, for greater than a month on the family immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas, her household and an advocacy group informed ABC Information.
Laura Rojas Ortiz was within the means of making use of for a U visa — which is for victims or witnesses of crimes — when she was detained throughout a check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Texas, her mom stated.
“She was referred to as to seem [at an ICE office] in Dallas,” her mom, Paola, stated in Spanish. “She confirmed up like she at all times does, and so they detained her.”
Paola informed ABC Information that her daughter turned herself in on the southern border over a 12 months in the past together with her toddler son and associate. The mom claims Rojas Ortiz later started the method of making use of for a U visa after there was a taking pictures in her neighborhood and a bullet went by means of the partitions, allegedly grazing her son.
In response to Paola and a buddy of Rojas Ortiz, the 21-year-old had been carrying an ankle monitor and usually checking in with ICE earlier than she was detained together with her son as a part of the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown.
Rojas Ortiz, who’s 5 months pregnant, has been detained for greater than 40 days, her household stated. Her mom says Rojas Ortiz has a high-risk being pregnant and has not been seen by medical workers at Dilley.
“To today, she hasn’t gotten an ultrasound or been seen by a specialist,” Paola informed ABC Information. “They have not achieved blood assessments or something.”
Laura Rojas Ortiz has been in ICE detention for greater than 40 days, her household says
Paola
Immigrant advocacy teams have stated that arrests and detentions of pregnant ladies violate an ICE directive stating that the company shouldn’t “detain, arrest, or proceed to detain people identified to be pregnant, postpartum, or nursing” besides underneath distinctive circumstances.
Paola stated her grandson, who had been ingesting solely lactose-free milk, has been given entire milk at Dilley.
Paola additionally informed ABC Information that when lawmakers not too long ago visited the ability, ICE workers moved her daughter to a “medical room,” the place she was informed she was going to be checked by a health care provider.
“And once they left — in order that the politicians would not see her pregnant — that is once they let her out of that medical room,” Paola stated.
A spokesperson for the Division of Homeland Safety didn’t reply to a request for remark from ABC Information.
Final week, Rep. Joaquin Castro, together with a gaggle of Democratic lawmakers, visited the Dilley facility, the place he stated greater than 500 individuals are at present detained. Castro stated he was solely allowed by workers to satisfy with one minor.
Origami cranes are pinned on fencing outdoors the South Texas Household Residential Heart in Dilley, Texas, June 27, 2026.
Joel Angel Juarez/Reuters
“There are actually extra youngsters there than there have been earlier than,” Castro stated at a press convention final week. “I imagine that’s the results of the ICE surge that we have seen during the last month or so. We have seen these raids on the road. We have seen households which have been torn aside on the road, brutality on the road.”
Casey Revkin, the manager director of Every Step Residence, a company that helps immigrant detainees, informed ABC Information that her group has been offering Rojas Ortiz with monetary help.
“We have been filling Laura’s commissary account and the accounts of the households at Dilley each week. These deposits are a lifeline to households in detention,” Revkin stated. “It is heartbreaking to consider a toddler not consuming, and we’re at all times so relieved once we hear {that a} mother was in a position to make use of the commissary help to purchase her youngsters meals they will get pleasure from.”
Immigrant advocates, medical professionals, and lawmakers have beforehand raised concerns about situations on the South Texas facility.
The highest medical official on the Division of Homeland Safety, which operates the nation’s migrant detention facilities, has disputed any suggestion that detainees are being denied correct care.
Rojas Ortiz is 5 months pregnant and has a two-year-old.
Paola
“These allegations of unlawful aliens being denied correct medical care in ICE custody are FALSE,” DHS Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sean Conley beforehand informed ABC Information in an announcement. “It’s each coverage and longstanding follow for aliens to obtain well timed and applicable medical care from the second they enter ICE custody. This consists of medical, dental, ladies’s well being, psychological well being companies, any wanted follow-up medical appointments, in addition to 24-hour emergency care.”
“That is higher, extra responsive healthcare than many aliens have ever obtained of their whole lives,” Conley’s assertion stated.
