Voces por la Vida

Vocesporlavida.org amiga@vocesporlavida.org

We speak for those who cannot speak for themselves

Phoenix, Arizona December 13, 2007.

Voces por la Vida is a Hispanic organization serving the community of Arizona since 1999. We are advocates for pregnant women and their babies, especially those most vulnerable. Our organization speaks for the right to life of all human beings from conception to natural death.

As an organization that serves minority women, we are very concerned about the recent political decisions that may result in a change of policy in the City of Phoenix Police Department. The change may result in more pregnant women and honest hardworking mothers occupying prisons that are supposed to be for people who commit serious criminal acts, not civil misdemeanor infractions.

We are concerned that the implementation of immigration enforcement duties by the Phoenix Police will take away undocumented Hispanic mothers from their children, many of them U.S. citizens, causing them great trauma and disrupt their innocent lives.

We have learned from interviews with women who have been pregnant and in custody of police and immigration officers about various cases of pregnant women who have suffered mistreatment, neglect and very sadly, the miscarriage of their unborn babies due to harsh conditions of their imprisonment and the lack of compassionate treatment and proper medical care.

The things that these women have in common are that they are Hispanic minority women and they have been in custody due to their undocumented immigration status, which makes them ineligible for bail regardless of the validity of the charges pending against them.

We visited Ms. Chavez in jail a few months ago. On August 2, 2007, she was 8 months pregnant when she was arrested in a violent manner by police officers after employees from a Phoenix Fry’s store accused her of shoplifting because she offered a piece of fruit to her toddler after paying for her groceries . Despite the lack of evidence and the changes in the nature of the accusations, she was pushed against the police car, causing her to get burns from the hot surface on her pregnant belly. She did not speak English and was worried about being separated from her 1 ½ year old toddler whom she was carrying in her arms. She resisted to having the child taken away from her and was pushed inside the car, receiving a impact in her head. She said she started to feel pain after the violent incident and she suffered imprisonment for a month despite the fact that there was no evidence that she shoplifted anything from the store. Ironically, the store kept all the merchandise that she had paid for her weekly groceries and it was never returned to her. After a month in prison, without any charges against her for shoplifting, she was released to immigration officers who refused her food and water for a whole day to pressure her to sign her deportation. Finally she was transferred to Florence and finally was given a rarely emitted humanitarian visa thanks to many people who advocated in her behalf. Her baby was born with insulin complications which we may reasonably believe were due in part to the extreme amount of stress, inadequate conditions and the poor diet consistent of two miserly meals a day she was given while in prison, one at 9 am and another until 7 pm.

Sadly, we learned about two other women who were not as lucky as Ms. Chavez. We were told about two Hispanic pregnant women who were at the prison with Ms. Chavez. One of them was detained for something related to being undocumented and was five months pregnant. She started bleeding and called the guard to request medical help. Her pleas for help were constantly ignored and when the pregnant woman said she was bleeding the guard said it was “normal” to bleed. The woman miscarried her five month unborn baby in the bathroom prison.

Another Hispanic woman said she was six months pregnant when she was detained. She miscarried shortly after being taken in custody and stated that she probably lost the baby because she was mistreated when she was detained.

Voces por la Vida requests that the Phoenix Police Department train its officers in the proper manner to interact with pregnant women who are detained, especially those belonging to an ethnic minority to prevent more cases of abuse of power and unnecessary force that can cause harm to their unborn babies.

We request an immediate investigation about the medical neglect of Hispanic pregnant women while in prison, an evaluation of the proper care for pregnant detainees and a study of the treatment and outcome of their pregnancies while detained.

If we turn our ears to those who demand the imprisonment of people based on their skin color and origin we will take one step closer to the likes of those who took part in the ethnic cleansing in Rwanda and Bosnia where neighbor turned against neighbor. We do not need racial profiling or alienate the immigrant community with the fear of police. We already have a system that allows us to identify and process dangerous criminals. A policy targeting Hispanics will threaten the safety of Phoenix residents and erode the human rights of U.S citizens and immigrants alike.

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Voces por la Vida calls all the city officials, authorities and the community to recognize that the majority of the undocumented men and women present in our state of Arizona are honest, hardworking fathers and mothers of the children who will build our future society. These children need their parents. We ask our citizens and authorities to exercise common sense and recognize the dignity and humanity of our immigrant community.

Our Mayor’s duty is to unite the citizens of Phoenix, not divide them between white and brown.

Fear is not the answer. Our country deserves better and asks better from us.

Rosie Villegas-Smith Isabel Galindo

Co-Founder President