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Suzel Velázquez Raigada, a 26-year-old Cuban resident of San Antonio, Texas, has been held for five months at the Karnes County Detention Center while seven months pregnant with a high-risk pregnancy, and her family fears that the baby will be born in that immigration facility.
The case was covered by Telemundo 60 San Antonio, which published the report last Thursday featuring testimonies from Suzel herself from the detention center and her husband Jorge, a permanent resident of the United States, who has experienced the pregnancy from afar and with anguish.
Suzel was arrested on October 21, 2025, during a routine appointment with ICE, despite being protected under political asylum. It was within the center itself that she discovered she was pregnant.
Doctors have classified her pregnancy as high-risk due to heart complications and other ailments. From Karnes, Suzel described her situation in words that leave no room for doubt: "These five months I have been in detention have been, well, extremely difficult."
"In this specific center, there are many things that are quite difficult for someone in my situation to endure," Suzel noted. The Karnes County center was reopened for family detention in early 2025, as part of the tightening of immigration policies under the Trump administration.
His husband, Jorge, commented to Telemundo 60 on the impact of the situation: "It's very difficult, unfortunately, for me and my family."
"The only thing I can do is when she comes, I can give her a hug, put my hand on her, and that's it. I haven't been able to talk to my baby, I haven't been able to give her a kiss, I haven't been able to say anything to her," he added.
According to a report from the Department of Homeland Security, in recent months, 363 pregnant, postpartum, or nursing women have been detained in immigration detention centers in the United States. Human rights organizations have reported on the conditions these women face.
Human Rights Watch reported that, at the time of their investigation, 86 pregnant women were actively detained under ICE custody, a figure that reflects a growing trend in the use of immigration detention against vulnerable populations.
The case of Suzel and Jorge joins that of other parents who have been unable to meet their newborn babies due to immigration detention, a reality that impacts many Cuban families and those of other nationalities in the United States.
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