Friday, August 1, 2008

The Imperiled Latina Body























A pregnant woman, Juana Villegas, got pulled over for a routine traffic infraction. As an undocumented immigrant, she was jailed and forced to give labor while cuffed to the hospital bed as a sheriff's officer stood guard over her. Under Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agreement "287G," which gives immigration enforcement powers to county officers, police can exceed their authority when they act on immigration laws they are not fully trained to enforce.

See Julia Preston's story in the New York Times, "Immigrant, Pregnant, Is Jailed Under Pact"