Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Let Them Have Their Babies in Peace

While reading the article Undocumented  Women Forced To Give Birth While Shackled and In Police Custody, I found this quite disturbing reading that a portion of the Latina community are considered to be "criminal offenders" are still being apprehended and chained down while being pregnant due to re-entry after being deported. Why is it that law enforcement find it completely ok to physically obstruct women that are in labor? This practice has been considered illegal in 14 states & is prohibited by ICE, but yet immigrant women who have violated immigration policies can "legally" be detained and denied the right to not be allowed to have the father present during a live birth.

The inhumanity of this ordeal perplexes me so; is illegal immigration even that serious to dehumanize expecting mothers? I don't think so. Basically what authorities are saying is that since there is no proof of documentation so they are automatically suspicious and a threat to human kind... This is something I am really having a hard time understanding; is the fear of the "illegal" that real? Is the fear that real to the point that the shackled mother isn't even allowed to nurse her own child until after her release? It's also sad that these women are also denied specialized care during incarceration while being in these conditions.

Along with the abuse of power, pregnant women were also mistreated physically, but verbally; for example Maria from the Breakthrough documentary described her ordeal with border patrol during a traffic stop and how she experienced with overly aggressive enforcement when being arrested. Maria claimed to be pushed hard enough to cause her water to break; using excessive force on a person who has violated a "civil" offense is one thing, but using this type of force on a pregnant woman is unacceptable and completely malice. Reading the condescending remarks that were being said at them were appalling; a border patrol agent had the audacity to tell Maria that she was faking her contractions and had threatened her by telling her that she will be deported to Mexico immediately after the birth of her son.

Seeing what is happening with the US?Mexico border us just a mess within itself. The Americanized views of immigration and/or "illegal" immigration makes it even easier to fully understand what the big problems are. Our social structures or ideologies causes gender biased stigmas of the Latino which deters us from the real issues that these women are facing internally (within their race). Criminalizing innocent people by using a corrupt power system does not make it easy for us to address all of the silences placed among the Mexican community.        

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