A Guatemalan woman who entered the U.S. illegally while eight months pregnant is no longer facing expedited removal with her baby, according to her immigration attorney, Luis Campos. She will be allowed to plead a case for asylum from her home country.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the woman, who has since given birth, crossed into the country at the U.S.-Mexico border.
She was taken to Tucson Medical Center in Arizona for evaluation, where her attorney said that a Department of Homeland Security guard had been stationed outside of her hospital room and prevented him from entering.
The woman and her newborn child were discharged from the hospital and transferred into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Enforcement and Removal Operations custody, where she was formally processed and then allowed to speak with her attorney.
Now, a court date before an immigration judge has been set.
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Both the woman and her baby are healthy and headed to Tennessee, where Campos said she has a friend. The woman will not be in federal custody as her case moves through the courts, but she will be required to check in with ICE.
Under the expedited removal process — which Campos said is common at the border or ports of entry — non-citizens can be deported without a trial.
“The government has the discretion," Campos said. "It could, if it wanted to, place her into standard deportation proceedings, not expedited. She can make her case for an asylum case. If she loses, she loses and goes home, but if she wins, she can stay here."
He said the woman was only in the United States a few days before giving birth. He said he spoke to the woman's mother over the phone, who told "a pretty harrowing story of violence that she faced."
Campos believes it could qualify as persecution, which is a requirement for an asylum hearing in the United States.
However, he says the timeline is relatively unpredictable.
"Depending on the region of the country, that makes a big difference," Campos said. "It depends on where you are in the country and how backlogged their docket is in that part of the country."
He estimated it will take a year or two for the woman to get her first hearing in front of a judge.
As for the baby, who is a United States citizen, Campos said the mother was given the choice to either leave her baby behind or take the baby with her. Campos said that gave her "no decision."
"She’s got no family here, no friends in Tucson, one friend who is in Tennessee," Campos said. "So what’s your choice gonna be? To take the child, which becomes a de facto deportation of a U.S. citizen child."
Campos said he was originally contacted about the case by someone familiar with the situation inside the hospital.
Tucson Medical Center has provided no comment on the issue.
Tucson Mayor Regina Romero also released a statement today:
"Here in Tucson, a new mother is being placed in an “expedited removal process” as a result of Trump’s unnecessarily cruel Executive Order that incorrectly declares there is an “invasion” at our Southern Border.
People in the United States, regardless of legal status, have a fundamental right to due process that has been reaffirmed by the Supreme Court as recently as April 7, 2025. Denying this mother access to legal representation is both inhumane and a violation of her basic rights.
I am deeply concerned about the consequences of this federal overreach. It is unacceptable to treat a medical facility as an extension of xenophobic policies, especially when a newborn’s health and safety are at stake.
I urge the federal government, and its agencies, to act with compassion and respect for due process."
This story was originally published by Alex Dowd with the Scripps News Group in Tucson.
