Guatemalan Woman Crosses Border, Gives Birth, Is Detained for Deportation

A pregnant woman from Guatemala crossed the border into the USA, gave birth and is being detained by Customs and Border Protection.

The 25 year old woman, referred to as Erika in some reports, wandered in the desert for two days near Sasabe, Arizona before being found. She was taken to Tucson Medical Center, gave birth there on or around 30 April 2025 and was discharged into detention 2 May 2025. She has not been processed and no formal charges have been filed against her.

A patient advocate at the hospital contacted Tucson-based immigration lawyer Luis Campos about her and provided phone numbers of loved ones, which Erika had kept with her. When he called her family in Guatemala, they asked him to represent her.

Campos asked through the advocate whether Erika wanted him to meet with her in the hospital. She did.

Two Department of Homeland Security officers outside her hospital room refused to let him see her. They said he must have a signed G-28 form specifying he was her lawyer in order to see her. Campos had the form with him, but the officers would not let him present it to her. They also refused to allow a doctor to carry the form into the room for her to sign.

After several meetings with administrators and lawyers for the hospital, the hospital chose to do what DHS wanted and deny access.

CBP said in a statement that she has no statutory right to a lawyer in immigration proceedings until she has been processed and issued a “Notice to Appear.” At that point she will be allowed to contact a lawyer.

Allan Perez Hernandez, the Guatemalan consul of Tucson, said CBP notified the consulate about her and the baby 30 April 2025. The vice consul and a woman on the consulate’s staff visited the mother and baby 1 May 2025. She told them that she is Indigenous and came from the department of Huehuetenango in Guatemala. She did not say why she left Guatemala. CBP has not told the consulate whether she will be deported back to Guatemala, released, or granted humanitarian parole. It is not clear whether she will be put through rapid removal.

In recent years many people from Guatemala have traveled through Mexico to seek asylum in the USA. Many are indigenous and come from poor areas such as Huehuetenango.

About countries in the Northern Triangle of Central America, including Guatemala, a 2023 report of the United Nations Human Rights Council said:

The increasing presence of drug cartels and gangs—called maras—threatens the lives of thousands of people in the region who are forced to flee their homes to ensure their own safety and protect their families from violence, extortion, forced gang recruitment and sexual and gender-based violence. Those who flee—many of whom are women and children—undertake perilous journeys just to find a safe place to live.

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