Pregnant migrants balance journey to childbirth, asylum

( NewsNation ) — Leticia Alvarez didn’t realize she was pregnant when she left Venezuela, determined like millions of other asylum-seekers to trade the political persecution and hardships for new opportunities elsewhere.

Alvarez learned she was 13 weeks pregnant in Panama after she developed intense belly pain early in her family’s trek to the Mexico-U.S. border. The news pushed the 25-year-old into a population of migrant women who navigate the already stressful process of giving birth while also seeking asylum in a new country.

In 2021, President Joe Biden reversed a Trump-era policy that allowed pregnant women or nursing mothers to be detained by border officials. Despite the change, the American Civil Liberties Union submitted a petition with more than 900 signatures that called for U.S. Customs and Border Protection to change its policy to minimize harm to women who are pregnant, postpartum, or nursing, saying that mothers-to-be continue to be mistreated.

Yet for Alvarez, pregnancy and migrant-related challenges pale to what she would have faced had she remained home.

“If I would have been pregnant in my country, I would be dead with my baby,” Alvarez told NewsNation in Spanish.

Searching for a new life across the border

Alvarez and her family needed 15 days to reach the U.S., traveling mainly by bus thanks to money she and her husband, Lisandro Escola, saved.

But the couple, along with Alvarez’s sister, niece and niece’s father, also walked for two days, including through the treacherous jungles of the Darien Gap , a 60-mile stretch of rainforest that sits on the border of Colombia and Panama and connects Central and South America.

The area is known to be dangerous, considering its tough terrain and steep mountains, but it has become a main thoroughfare for migrants making the journey to the southern border.

“It was exhausting because you fight to get out of the jungle, and (it was) traumatic because you see infinite amounts of things that are not told but are carried in the mind,” said Alvarez, who fell several times in the jungle. “Once you start the trip, you don’t stop walking.”

Anxiety filled Alvarez once she learned she was expecting, including fears she could lose her baby.

She and Escola were separated from her relatives, who remained in Mexico City after they ran out of money.

Alvarez and Escola crossed near McAllen, Texas, and surrendered to border officials. Alvarez was immediately released but said Escola was held at the Joe Corley Detention Center for seven months. She says she doesn’t know why.

In late January, the Venezuelan government announced that it would halt repatriation flights from the U.S. as of Feb. 13 in response to the economic sanctions that the United States reimposed on Venezuela after previously lifting them in 2023, according to information provided by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico .

With her husband in federal custody, Alvarez flew to Chicago and then traveled by car to Indianapolis, where she worked a construction job. She says she worked from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, cleaning and helping lay ceramic tiles and flooring in a newly constructed building along with other duties.

She saw a doctor only once in three months, fearing the cost. Alvarez saw her first Chicago doctor in early January. Two months later, she gave birth to a baby girl, Sophia, who entered the world at 8 pounds, 9 ounces.

Two weeks after that, Escola was freed from detention, but by then, Alvarez was carrying the emotional toll.

“Going through the pregnancy alone is very hard and very sad,” Alvarez told NewsNation. “All you want is to be accompanied at that moment, and I was alone.”

The costs of migrant pregnancy

Over the past two years, the health system for Illinois’ largest county has treated more than 35,000 patients, including 670 pregnant women. The health system connects women to prenatal care and since 2022 has spent more than $30 million on migrant medical care, a spokeswoman for Cook County Health told NewsNation.

Like Chicago-area locals facing economic hardship, migrants are eligible for financial assistance. Of those who apply, 99.5% receive a 100% discount, with the health system’s operating budget absorbing the costs, the spokeswoman said.

In New York, which has processed more than 225,000 migrants, NYC Health + Hospitals assisted 300 babies born to asylum-seekers in 2023 while also contributing 2.1 million baby wipes, 400,000 diapers and 100,000 bottles of baby food and formula, National Public Radio reported last year.

In Denver, city officials have spent $90 million on migrants this year, some new arrivals who have given birth find difficulty adjusting.

Denver Health , the city’s safety net hospital, lost about $2 million in 2023, according to The Denver Post , which reported that the facility provided about $136 million in care it didn’t receive compensation for. In the past year, the hospital provided medical care for 8,000 migrants from Central America, which made 20,000 visits to the hospital for care, including childbirth, the report said.

The hospital’s CEO told the newspaper that the facility isn’t reimbursed by the state or federal government to cover the cost of migrant health care, which runs into the millions. Hospital officials did not immediately return an email from NewsNation seeking details on migrant childbirth costs absorbed by the health system.

Ivanni Herrera was eight months pregnant when her family’s shelter assignment in Denver ended. She was told she could seek care at a local hospital, where the costs of her appointments and the baby’s delivery would be covered by Medicaid, according to The Associated Press . She declined the help.

“How could I sleep in a warm place when my son is cold on the street?” she told the AP.

Denver city officials have committed to keeping families off the streets and, in turn, have helped thousands of migrants gain work authorization. As she waits, Herrera has no means of regular income. She told the AP she owes $18,000 in medical bills because she forgot to sign up for Medicaid.

“I’m afraid they’re going to deport me,” she said.

What Chicago migrant care looks like

Doctors working within Illinois’ Cook County Health System say they strive to provide the same care to migrants and asylum-seekers as anyone else.

The biggest challenge, however, is higher levels of fractured care experienced by migrants because of the countries from where they came from and the amount of time that may have passed since their last appointment.

“A pregnancy really can’t wait for you to be in the best possible place to get your care,” Dr. Mary Arlandson , an attending physician and OBGYN at Chicago’s Stroger Hospital, told NewsNation.

Doctors are not able to make up for lost time. But they can assess what care a woman needs at the time and help them navigate a pregnancy that is stressful even without challenges like learning a new city, a lack of work and finding transportation to appointments.

“The type of person who would take that journey is probably categorically different than the person who decides they’re not up for that,” Arlandson said.

Since Sophia’s birth, Alvarez has struggled at times with postpartum depression. The family resides in a rented room as they await permanent living conditions. While Alvarez remains home with the couple’s daughter, Escola said that her husband works construction from time to time and handles all of the young family’s expenses.

Alvarez says Sophia is adjusting as her parents wait for necessities like work authorizations and immigration court appearances. She says that ever since she learned she was pregnant, she has only thought about the opportunities that await her daughter if she and her husband can do their part.

For now, things are as good as they can be.

“The baby is fine, thank God,” she said.

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