Iris Monterroso Lost Her Baby in ICE Custody. We Should All Care.

Jun 27

In May, the Nashville Banner reported on Iris Monterroso, a young woman arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Tennessee while she was eight weeks pregnant. Iris had no criminal record. She was detained in a facility that, by her account, failed to provide medical attention even as she began bleeding. By the time she was finally taken to a hospital, she had miscarried.

It’s a tragedy no matter where you stand on immigration.

It is also a reminder of what happens when enforcement policy pulls in ordinary people — people with no violent histories, no threats to public safety — and places them into harsh, overcrowded conditions.

The Bigger Picture

Since Trump returned to office in 2025, ICE has dramatically escalated arrests of non-criminal immigrants, even beyond the levels seen in 2017. According to the Cato Institute, arrests of non-criminal immigrants have risen more than 1,100%compared to the beginning of Trump’s first term.

About two-thirds of people detained have no criminal convictions.
Over 93% have no violent record.

This is a policy of pursuing the easiest targets, not necessarily the most dangerous. Many of those picked up were following the immigration system’s own requirements — checking in regularly, reporting their locations, working toward legal status. These are not the people most Americans believe should be prioritized for detention.

Yet they are the ones filling up the beds in detention centers, creating dangerous overcrowding and stretching medical care to the breaking point.

Meanwhile, the immigration courts remain hopelessly backlogged, leaving people stuck for months or even years in stressful, unhealthy detention. Without serious reform to reduce court delays, no amount of oversight alone will fix this.

Why It Should Matter

No pregnant woman should fear losing her baby because she was placed in a government facility.

Iris Monterroso’s story crosses every line of decency. She wanted her baby. She was trying to comply with the system. Yet she was ignored, neglected, and left to lose her pregnancy while in government custody.

This should move every one of us. Whether you see yourself as Pro-Life, Pro-Choice, or somewhere in between, there is a basic principle at stake: human dignity. It should not depend on immigration status.

No one should lose a pregnancy because of neglect in U.S. custody. No child should be lost this way.

What Needs to Change

Oversight of ICE facilities is vital. Congress must step up its inspections, demand transparency, and hold agencies accountable.

But that is only the beginning. Congress must also fix the overwhelmed immigration court system and direct ICE to focus its resources on genuine public-safety threats — not on parents, working people, or others who pose no harm.

This is not about “open borders.” It is about smart, fair priorities and ensuring taxpayer dollars go toward real threats, not the easy-to-catch targets that make families suffer while criminals walk free.

Oversight, immigration court reform, and smarter enforcement priorities — together — are what it will take to prevent tragedies like Iris’s.

Iris Monterroso deserved better. Her baby deserved better. And our country can do better.

Congress must act.