Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Monday released new guidelines for the treatment of pregnant, postpartum, breastfeeding and infant detainees, following a July report detailing the agency’s lack of appropriate care infrastructure and guidelines.
In a policy memo reviewed by The Hill, CBP acting Commissioner Troy Miller laid out a series of measures – from improving CBP installations to include changing stations to providing medical support – that field offices and Border Patrol stations will have to implement within 45 days.
The memo comes as a response to an Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report which detailed how a pregnant woman in Border Patrol custody in 2020 gave birth while wearing pants and onto a trash receptacle.
The report found that 23 other babies had been born in Border Patrol custody between 2016 and 2020.
While the report found that Border Patrol officials did not mistreat the woman in the 2020 incident, it did find that Border Patrol, a component of CBP, does not track pregnancies and births adequately, resulting in potential mistreatment.
“Further, Border Patrol does not have clear policies or guidance requiring agents to document childbirths and pregnancy-related complications that occurred in custody resulting in inconsistent and incomplete records,” reads the report.