Immigrant advocates and lawyers say teen moms and pregnant girls aren't getting special medical consideration while they're being crammed into overcrowded U.S. facilities. The girls say they're underfed, have poor hygiene and their babies get sick.
FILE - In this June 30, 2019 file photo, people hold signs that read "families belong together" in both English and Spanish during a vigil at Alice Hope Wilson Park in Brownsville, Texas to advocate against the separation of migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border. As the crisis at the border has deepened, as pregnant teens and teens with babies who are coming to the U.S.
Immigrant advocates and lawyers say the young mothers don’t get special medical consideration while they’re being crammed into U.S. facilities so packed that migrants are forced to sleep on floors or stand for days on end. As a result, the girls say they’re underfed, have poor hygiene and their babies get sick.
“The average unaccompanied minor who’s coming is facing so many challenges because of lack of access to legal representation, issues in education, lack of support, lack of mental health treatment,” said Priya Konings, the deputy director of legal services for Kids in Need of Defense, which helps unaccompanied minors. “When you compound that with anything else such as being a young parent or being pregnant, everything becomes twice as hard.
Customs and Border Protection has said repeatedly that it is not equipped to handle the large number of families and unaccompanied children coming to the border, and says its agents aren’t trained to be caregivers. When asked to comment on the treatment of pregnant teens and teens with babies, a spokesman pointed to the agency’s guidebook on treatment of detainees, which says underage migrants and those who are pregnant or nursing must have regular access to snacks, milk and juice.
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