When Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued new guidelines earlier this month to address the needs of detained immigrant mothers who are nursing, the agency failed to inform at least one of its contract facilities of the change. As a result, a nursing Brazilian mother was detained in North Carolina for four days before immigration officials released her and informed the jail of the new policy.

According to WSOC-TV in Charlotte, NC, Danielle Ferreira's two-month-old son spent those four days "crying incessantly and continually spitting up baby formula."

Since April 2006, the Mecklenburg jail has participated in a federal program that identifies illegal immigrants after they are arrested and turns them over to immigration officials.

 

Spokeswoman Julia Rush said jail officials did not know about the new federal guidelines for nursing women until late Monday night.

 

"Had we known, she would have been released on Friday," Rush said.

 

Oliveira [a friend of Ferreira] said he spent hours at the Mecklenburg County jail on Monday trying to get a breast pump to Ferriera, who had been in jail since Friday.

Ferreira was finally released Tuesday afternoon. Community outcry in Ohio earlier this month, when a nursing mother was detained for three days, prompted ICE to issue the new guidelines.

Thanks to VivirLatino and brownfemipower for the story.