This story was originally reported by Shefali Luthra of The 19th.
A pregnant woman with two American-born children — including a breastfeeding infant — is awaiting deportation in a Louisiana immigration detention facility. She has been separated from her family for more than three weeks.
“It’s just getting harder every day not to see my babies,” Cecil Elvir-Quinonez said on a phone call from Richwood Correctional Center, a privately run immigration facility in Louisiana. “I’m worried about going back to a country that I don’t have nobody there. All my life is here.”
Elvir-Quinonez, who found out she was pregnant in government custody, said she has experienced heavy bleeding and cramps while detained, and once had to go to the emergency room. The 25-year-old Honduran national said she has received prenatal vitamins but has not seen a doctor outside of that emergency room visit. She has not been given a breastpump, she added; instead, she has had to manually express as much breastmilk as she can during showers.
She has been in Florida since her mother brought her to the United States in 2014 seeking asylum and does not have an attorney.
“The fact that parents aren’t with the kids, that she’s breastfeeding an infant, pregnant and having complications — those kinds of things are not being looked at or considered as relevant — it’s inhumane from my perspective,” said Kerry Doyle, a Boston-based immigration lawyer who led ICE’s legal division under President Joe Biden. “There are alternatives and discretions that have been exercised in the past to at least not have family separation.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to requests for comment.
ICE has drawn scrutiny for detaining pregnant, postpartum and nursing people — a break from previous policy. Lawmakers, immigration rights activists and formerly detained people have also raised concerns about the conditions of detention facilities, saying many are not equipped to house pregnant and postpartum people.
A December report from the Women’s Refugee Commission, an advocacy group, identified several mothers who had been recently deported without their young children, despite their wishes to have their children sent with them if necessary.
The Trump administration says that immigration officials should “remain cognizant of the impact enforcement actions may have on minor children,” a step back from the Biden-era policy directing ICE to ensure “the fundamental interests of parents, legal guardians, and their minor children.” But government policy still requires that the agency give parents the option of bringing their children with them if they are deported. It’s unclear if Elvir-Quinonez will be given that choice.
Elvir-Quinonez was stopped by law enforcement shortly before midnight on New Year’s Eve. Her two children — then 5 years old and 5 months old — were in the backseat. An officer told her she’d been speeding, she said, and asked for her license and registration. She was then arrested for an outstanding warrant, which her family said was related to a misdemeanor charge for marijuana possession that was dropped in 2019. She was transferred to ICE custody on January 5.
In addition to the dropped marijuana charge, The 19th could only identify traffic violations on Elvir-Quinonez’s criminal record. There is no public record of state charges against her. While in custody, Elvir-Quinonez learned that though she has a work permit — she hopes someday to be a nurse, but works as a cleaner at a local elementary school — the government in 2024 dismissed her family’s appeal for asylum, which her mother submitted after their initial petition was declined in 2019.
In custody, Elvir-Quinonez said she was given a pregnancy test. When it was positive, she estimated she was about eight weeks along.
On January 6, Elvir-Quinonez experienced heavy bleeding that required a visit to the emergency room, where she had two ultrasounds. Hospital staff confirmed she was still pregnant. She was flown the next day to a long-term detention center in Louisiana, said her cousin Genesis Turcio.
Elvir-Quinonez has been told regularly that she will soon be deported to Honduras, where she has no close family or community. She is still regularly bleeding and having heavy cramps, she said; she is worried something is wrong with her pregnancy.
“I’ve been telling them I’ve been having cramps and they told me I have to have a referral to see the doctor,” Elvir-Quinonez said. “I’ve been telling them every day, and they just say I have to wait.”
Medical providers have raised concerns about the quality of health care pregnant people are receiving in detention.
“Anybody who is detained, whether short- or long-term, needs access to prenatal care — it’s a human right. I worry she may not have access to the labs she needs, blood pressure surveillance, adequate food, aspirin if she needs it,” said Dr. Lynn Yee, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Northwestern University. “While things may be fine, it sounds like she needs some medical care to follow the status of the pregnancy.”
Yee also said she worried that someone in Elvir-Quinonez’s situation may not be counseled about all her reproductive options, including whether she wants to stay pregnant or have an abortion. Abortion is illegal in Louisiana and outlawed after six weeks in Florida. Turcio said Elvir-Quinonez had not been counseled about abortion as an option.
A 2023 report from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General found that Richwood, the facility where Elvir-Quinonez is detained, fell short of government cleanliness standards. The report identified dirty showers, rusty bunks, dusty air vents and dirty, damaged clothing provided to detainees. A 2025 investigation by USA Today singled out the facility for serving low-quality food that often left detainees hungry.
While detained, Elvir-Quinonez has struggled to eat the meals served at the detention facility, going without food until her family could send her money to purchase food at the facility’s commissary, Turcios said. Turcios, also an aspiring nurse, said she has paused her schooling to save money so the family can hire an immigration lawyer. The League of United Latin American Citizens, an advocacy and litigation group that is working on issues such as birthright citizenship, voting rights and redistricting, is also working to raise money for Elvir-Quinonez’s case.
“Detaining a pregnant, breastfeeding mother — and then transferring her out of state without notice to her family — is not public safety. It is an alarming failure of basic humanity and accountability,” said Juan Proaño, LULAC’s CEO.
Turcios counts Elvir-Quinonez as her best friend. Her cousin is a talented baker, she said, singling out her flan, tres leches and chocolate-covered strawberries. Elvir-Quinonez loves to send her older child to school with treats in his lunch, slicing his apples into the shape of dinosaurs.
“Good is not enough to say how amazing she is,” Turcios said.
Since Elvir-Quinonez’s detention, her baby has been repeatedly sick, Turcios said. Her older son doesn’t know where his mom is — his family has told him she’s out at work. Turcios said that the last time she spoke with the boy, he told her, “The police did something to my mom.”
“I’m not happy that she is in that center, but I’d rather her to be held in there for a minute to see if we can get her out,” she said. “The kids — it’s hard for them. Having a newborn, it’s way harder.”
Elvir-Quinonez has not seen her children since January 1, but, she said, she speaks with them on the phone daily. Both are being cared for by her mother.
“It’s getting hard for my 5-year-old. He’s having trouble speaking, which, that’s never happened to him before now,” she said. “He was there when the police arrested me and he was crying to the police, ‘Don’t take my mommy!’”
