I'm late in covering this, but Tim Chavez at Political Salsa has been following the story of Juana Villegas DeLaPaz since it broke. The story is the latest reminder about why placing federal immigration enforcement duties in the hands of local cops is a bad idea and poses a particular danger to immigrant women.

The 287(g) program has been touted as a way for local police departments to rid their communities' streets of dangerous criminals who are in the United States illegally. But all around the country we have heard stories about men and women who have been arrested at minor traffic stops and turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Here is how Chavez describes DeLaPaz's arrest, based on interviews and excerpts from police reports:

Ms. DeLaPaz was pulled over by Berry Hill PD, Sgt. Timothy Ray Coleman, to be precise. This was on 7/3/08 at 12:40 PM. The ticket issued said "Careless driving", but no other details were available. Poor Juana still to this day doesn't understand what she did wrong. I interviewed the couple's 14-year-old son who was in the car, and he said the policeman never specified what the woman did that was wrong.

According to one report from Chavez, DeLaPaz was pulled over as she was leaving a prenatal clinic and pled for the officers not to detain her as she was due to give birth in three days. Nevertheless, she was taken into custody, shackled until a few hours before giving birth (and re-shackled a few hours after), and was not allowed to nurse her infant because she was returned to jail two days later and separated from the child for two more days before she was finally released from jail July 10.

Chavez's blog includes comments from a physician about how DeLaPaz's traumatic birth experience could negatively affect both her and her child. ICE itself has even recognized that separating a nursing mother from her child is inhumane and last year released a memo stating that agents should consider alternatives to detention for nursing mothers who do not pose a threat to public safety. Unfortunately, DeLaPaz's is not the first for which that policy has been ignored.

Latina Lista and Our Bodies Our Blog also have good commentary on this story.