ICE Lost Miscarriage Data for 9 Months as Pregnant Detainee Count Hit 101
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Sep 15
ICE Lost Miscarriage Data for 9 Months as Pregnant Detainee Count Hit 101
2 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Sep 15
Summary
ICE told the Guardian it has no miscarriage data for detained pregnant women from October 2025 through June 2026, after recording 18 miscarriages in the first nine months of the Trump administration.
The gap followed a switch in medical accounting systems after ICE ended its VA-FSC contract; DHS first said miscarriages were still tracked monthly, then confirmed the agency lacked the data.
Agency records still showed pregnant detention levels rising last fall and winter, reaching 87 in October and 101 in November, the highest counts in the prior year.
Women held in Kentucky, Texas and California described delayed emergency treatment, no OB-GYN access and little follow-up after miscarriages or pregnancy complications, accounts doctors said risk infection and other severe outcomes.
The missing data and care complaints cut against a 2021 ICE directive that says pregnant immigrants should rarely be detained and, if held, must receive regular monitoring and prenatal or postnatal care.
Could hundreds of thousands of unpaid medical claims be the real reason detained pregnant women are denied emergency care?
Why did a federal agency rely on a broken billing system to track the loss of unborn lives in its custody?
Are administrative loopholes being used to quietly release critically ill detainees before their outcomes can be officially recorded?
ICE’s Nine-Month Miscarriage Data Gap: Medical Neglect and the 2025–2026 Pregnant Detainee Crisis
Overview
In late 2025, political pressure led ICE to abruptly end its medical billing contract with the VA, creating an emergency where ICE could not pay for off-site medical care. ICE then hired Acentra Health to build a new claims system, but repeated delays left the agency unable to process medical claims or track miscarriages for nine months. During this period, the Trump administration ramped up immigration raids, causing the number of pregnant detainees to reach historic highs. With medical staffing unable to keep up, detainees faced delayed care, unrecorded miscarriages, and severe health risks, all while oversight and transparency were sharply reduced.