Salvadoran mother detained while pregnant for 3.5 months despite ICE policy, witnesses miscarriages
September 2025·Location: San Fernando, CA
Country of origin: El Salvador

Lorena Pineda, a 27-year-old Salvadoran mother of two, was arrested by ICE agents on June 19, 2025, while five months pregnant at a food stand in California. Despite ICE policy prohibiting detention of pregnant women for administrative violations, an agent told her he would not release her. She was transferred through multiple detention facilities—Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Atlanta, Alexandria, and finally South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana—where she was held for over 3.5 months separated from her young children by 1,500 miles. At the facility, she was housed with at least 20 other pregnant women and witnessed multiple miscarriages, including a woman carrying twins. She received inadequate prenatal care, poor nutrition, and was unable to contact her family for the first month. After three months, she signed papers for voluntary self-deportation to El Salvador with a departure date extended to March due to her full-term pregnancy.
Timeline
Sources
More incidents in California
- Teen with disabilities handcuffed outside LA school, mistaken for gang member by ICEOct 8, 2026 · Los Angeles, CA
- Nearly 15,000 deported after ICE arrest surge in Los Angeles, study findsOct 8, 2026 · Los Angeles, CA
- Longtime Fresno resident detained by ICE while driving to work, daughter saysOct 7, 2026 · Fresno, CA
- Van of Central Valley farm workers detained by ICE in CaliforniaOct 6, 2026 · Central Valley, CA
- Whistleblower says Trump ordered FBI to investigate LA anti-ICE protestersOct 6, 2026 · Los Angeles, CA
- ICE detains multiple residents in Fresno's West Park communityOct 6, 2026 · Fresno, CA