Juana Villegas is a Mexican immigrant living in Tennessee. She was nine months pregnant when she was stopped for careless driving" (for which she was later found innocent); instead of receiving a customary citation, because of an agreement called 287(g) between local police and federal immigration authorities, she was detained in jail where she was shackled. She remained shackled in transit to the hospital and while she gave birth, and was then not allowed to use a breast pump or nurse her newborn child. She didn't know where her husband and family were and was not allowed to see them through this whole ordeal.
All this for a simple traffic violation. Critics of 287(g) believe that instead of catching dangerous criminals, the agreement leads to racial profiling and cases such as Juana's.
And when we deny due process and human rights to some people, we put all of our freedoms at risk.
