Despite concerns, the Trump administration still sends pregnant migrant minors to south Texas
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administration → send → Texas
The Trump administration is still detaining pregnant migrant youth in a region of Texas where a lack of specialized obstetric care can be life threatening for them, an investigation by The Texas Newsroom and The California Newsroom has found.
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investigation → detain → Newsroom
The practice continues despite vocal concern from current and former government officials, and from members of Congress.
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practice → continue → Congress
Government records show that in the first ten months of the policy, four of the 21 pregnant girls placed in the region had to be transferred out of state to receive specialized medical care, including at least one abortion, that is unavailable in Texas.
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that → show → Texas
"The first time that happened should have been a wake-up call for the administration, and they should have stopped placing kids in any remote area where they can't get care," said Jen Smyers, who during the Biden administration helped oversee the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which is responsible for migrant youth who are apprehended by immigration authorities without a parent or guardian.
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who → happen → parent
She called the policy to send all pregnant children to South Texas "enraging."
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She → call → Texas
This spring, The Texas Newsroom and The California Newsroom published a joint investigation revealing the administration's policy of detaining pregnant unaccompanied minors as young as 13, at least half of whom were pregnant as a result of rape, at a single shelter in the city of San Benito near Texas' border with Mexico.
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half → publish → Mexico
The investigation detailed serious concerns that health experts inside and outside the government had raised about the policy, given that adolescent pregnancies are inherently high risk and there is a lack of specialized obstetric care in the region.
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pregnancies → detail → region
Since then, the administration has denied that there is such a policy and said it is ensuring that the girls have access to the care they need.
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they → deny → care
In an email in September the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees ORR, wrote that "ORR's policies for placing children in its custody into care provider facilities are based on child welfare best practices in order to provide a safe environment and place the child in the least restrictive setting appropriate for the child's needs.
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policies → oversee → needs
Yet the administration's own records, as well as interviews with multiple government officials, suggest otherwise.
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records → suggest → officials
The documents, which were obtained through a public records request, show that ORR explicitly directed its staff in July 2025 to send all pregnant youth to the shelter in San Benito, just outside Brownsville at the extreme southern tip of Texas.
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ORR → obtain → Texas
Several months later, internal agency data showed that pregnant girls started being sent to a different shelter nearby instead, according to three ORR officials who asked not to be named because they feared retaliation.
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they → show → retaliation
Forty-eight Democratic members of Congress demanded transparency about the policy in a pointed letter to the Department of Health and Human Services back in April.
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members → demand → April
They received a response in September from an assistant secretary at HHS, Alex J. Adams, who wrote that ORR "does not make placement decisions for pregnant youth based on a blanket rule or one-size-fits-all approach" and that it "takes seriously its responsibility to protect the health, safety, dignity, and well-being of every unaccompanied alien child in its custody."
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it → receive → custody
HHS did not respond to requests for comment about the discrepancy between the statements in Adams' letter and the government's own records.
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HHS → respond → letter
"Obviously, they're not being honest about their policy," said U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat from San Antonio, whose office authored the letter to HHS.
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office → say → HHS
"It's irresponsible that they would wait several months to respond to basic questions about the care of some of the most vulnerable people within the system," Castro said, adding that the administration failed to explain "what seems to be an informal but strict policy of sending these girls to deep South Texas, which lacks the medical care that the girls need."
Unaccompanied migrant children have historically been placed in shelters across the United States, but this summer, the Trump administration began detaining far more of them in Texas.
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administration → wait → Texas
According to internal reports provided independently by two of the ORR officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity, 95% of the roughly 300 children apprehended by immigration officials in September were placed in detention in Texas, up from 45% in June.
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% → accord → June
Advocates for unaccompanied migrant children, former government officials, and some members of Congress have criticized the move, arguing that the state is not prepared to handle an influx of vulnerable children, some of whom need special care.
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some → criticize → care
The fact that ORR has had to transfer several pregnant unaccompanied minors out of Texas to receive medical care, one congress member says, proves their point.
"If the government had to fly or transport these pregnant children across the country to get them the medical care they need, why on earth did it deliberately send them to Texas in the first place?" said U.S. Rep. Judy Chu, a Democrat from Southern California who signed the congressional inquiry letter to HHS.
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who → transfer → HHS
"If there is a 13-year-old girl who has survived rape," she said, "she should be met with compassion, safety and appropriate medical care.
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she → be → compassion
Instead, this administration is placing children like her in a state where they will be deprived of access to basic healthcare.
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they → place → healthcare
It's dangerous, and it's cruel, and there's no excuse for treating children this way."
Government records contradict Trump administration's claims
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records → be → claims
Unlike Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which detains migrant adults and families in large, prison-like facilities, ORR holds unaccompanied children in group or foster homes overseen by private contractors.
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ORR → detain → contractors
Laws, agency regulations and court orders require that the children receive comprehensive healthcare and appropriate education while they're detained.
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they → require → healthcare
In an emailed statement last month, HHS said that placing children in Texas is "operationally efficient" and that ORR's facilities in the state "provide all requirements and more."
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facilities → email → requirements
But records obtained through a public information request cast doubt on that assertion.
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records → obtain → assertion
The records show between July of 2025, when ORR began placing pregnant girls in South Texas, and May of 2026, four of them had to be transferred to other states to receive medical treatment.
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four → show → treatment
That's roughly one in five of the 21 pregnant girls the agency placed in the region in that time frame, according to one of the ORR officials who requested anonymity.
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who → place → anonymity
In detailed notes for one of those cases, ORR staff wrote that a pregnant 12-year-old girl was transferred from the Rio Grande Valley to a shelter in New York on the recommendation of ORR's division of health.
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girl → write → health
The records note that the child needed access to specialists whose availability in South Texas is "extremely limited."
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availability → note → Texas
In a note for another case, staff wrote that a pregnant girl was transferred to California due to an unspecified "high risk medical need."
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girl → write → need
In at least one case, a girl was transferred out of Texas because she had requested an abortion, the records show.
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records → transfer → abortion
Marsha Griffin, a retired professor of pediatrics at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, said such outcomes were inevitable.
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outcomes → say → Medicine
Griffin said the shelters have very few medical staff on hand and the region does not have enough specialized obstetricians.
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region → say → obstetricians
"Young girls who are pregnant, especially those from 10 to 14 years of age, are automatically a high-risk population," said Griffin, who oversaw medical students volunteering in ORR facilities in South Texas.
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who → say → Texas
Internal communications, also obtained through a public records request, show that officials in ORR's own division of health warned the agency's leadership about the lack of pregnancy-related healthcare in the Rio Grande Valley.
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officials → obtain → Valley
"Texas has one of the worst rates of maternal mortality in the U.S.," wrote Joanna Gaines, who at the time was ORR's acting health director, in a July 18, 2025, email to Melissa Johnston, the agency's head of operations.
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who → have → operations
She added that the state "lack[s] access to quality perinatal healthcare" and that the Rio Grande Valley's Cameron County "has one of the higher rates of infant mortality in Texas."
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County → add → Texas
…and 28 more, not listed.
The Aporia
