II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 916
To safeguard the humane treatment of pregnant and postpartum women
by ensuring the presumption of release and prohibiting shackling, re-
straining, and other inhumane treatment, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH10, 2025
Mrs. M
URRAY(for herself, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. BOOKER, Mr. COONS, Ms.
C
ORTEZMASTO, Ms. DUCKWORTH, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. FETTERMAN, Mrs.
G
ILLIBRAND, Mr. HEINRICH, Ms. HIRONO, Mr. KIM, Ms. KLOBUCHAR,
Mr. M
ARKEY, Mr. PADILLA, Mr. SANDERS, Mr. SCHIFF, Mr. VANHOL-
LEN, Ms. WARREN, Mr. WELCH, and Mr. WYDEN) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary
A BILL
To safeguard the humane treatment of pregnant and
postpartum women by ensuring the presumption of re-
lease and prohibiting shackling, restraining, and other
inhumane treatment, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Stop Shackling and 4
Detaining Pregnant Women Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 1
In this Act: 2
(1) A
PPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CON -3
GRESS.—The term ‘‘appropriate committees of Con-4
gress’’ means— 5
(A) the Committee on Homeland Security 6
and Governmental Affairs of the Senate; 7
(B) the Committee on the Judiciary of the 8
Senate; 9
(C) the Committee on Appropriations of 10
the Senate; 11
(D) the Committee on Homeland Security 12
of the House of Representatives; 13
(E) the Committee on the Judiciary of the 14
House of Representatives; and 15
(F) the Committee on Appropriations of 16
the House of Representatives. 17
(2) C
OMMISSIONER.—The term ‘‘Commis-18
sioner’’ means the Commissioner for U.S. Customs 19
and Border Protection. 20
(3) D
ETAINED NONCITIZEN .—The term ‘‘de-21
tained noncitizen’’ includes any adult or juvenile in-22
dividual detained by any Federal, State, or local law 23
enforcement agency (including under contract or 24
agreement with such agency) under the Immigration 25
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.). 26
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(4) DETENTION OFFICER.—The term ‘‘deten-1
tion officer’’ means an individual who— 2
(A) works at a facility, including an indi-3
vidual who works at a facility pursuant to a 4
contract or subcontract; and 5
(B) performs duties relating to the secu-6
rity, custody, or transport of individuals in cus-7
tody. 8
(5) D
IRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 9
the Director for U.S. Immigration and Customs En-10
forcement. 11
(6) F
ACILITY.—The term ‘‘facility’’ means a 12
Federal, State, or local government facility, or a pri-13
vately owned and operated facility, that is used, in 14
whole or in part, to hold individuals under the au-15
thority of the Secretary of Homeland Security, in-16
cluding a facility that— 17
(A) holds such individuals under a contract 18
or agreement with the Director or the Commis-19
sioner; or 20
(B) is used, in whole or in part, to hold in-21
dividuals pursuant to an immigration detainer 22
or similar request. 23
(7) F
ACILITY ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘fa-24
cility administrator’’ means the official responsible 25
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for oversight of a facility, or the designee of such of-1
ficial. 2
(8) P
OSTPARTUM.—The term ‘‘postpartum’’ 3
means during the 1-year period, or longer, as deter-4
mined by the licensed health care provider of the in-5
dividual concerned, following delivery, including the 6
entire period during which the individual is in a 7
medical facility, birthing center, or infirmary after 8
birth. 9
(9) R
ESTRAINT.—The term ‘‘restraint’’— 10
(A) means any physical restraint or me-11
chanical device used to control the movement of 12
the body or limbs of a detained noncitizen’s 13
body for custody purposes, including— 14
(i) flex cuffs; 15
(ii) soft restraints; 16
(iii) hard metal handcuffs; 17
(iv) a black box; 18
(v) Chubb cuffs; 19
(vi) leg irons; 20
(vii) belly chains; 21
(viii) a security (tether) chain; 22
(ix) a convex shield; and 23
(x) any other type of shackles; and 24
(B) does not include medical restraints. 25
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(10) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ 1
means the Secretary of Homeland Security. 2
SEC. 3. LIMITATION ON DETENTION OF PREGNANT WOMEN 3
AND MOTHERS OF NEWBORNS. 4
(a) A
CCESS TOPREGNANCYTESTING.—The Sec-5
retary shall provide every individual being processed into 6
custody access to pregnancy testing during the initial med-7
ical screening. 8
(b) P
RESUMPTION OFRELEASE.— 9
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-10
graph (2), the Secretary— 11
(A) may not detain, arrest, or take into 12
custody an individual under any provision of the 13
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 14
1101 et seq.) who is known to be pregnant, lac-15
tating, or postpartum, pending a decision with 16
respect to whether the noncitizen is to be re-17
moved from the United States; and 18
(B) shall immediately release any detained 19
noncitizen found to be pregnant. 20
(2) E
XCEPTIONS.—The Secretary, pursuant to 21
chapter 4 of title II of the Immigration and Nation-22
ality Act (8 U.S.C. 1221 et seq.), may detain an in-23
dividual who is known to be pregnant, lactating, or 24
postpartum— 25
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(A) under extraordinary circumstances in 1
which the Secretary makes an individualized de-2
termination that credible, reasonable grounds 3
exist to believe that— 4
(i) such individual poses an immediate 5
and serious risk of physical harm to oth-6
ers; and 7
(ii) enrollment in an alternative to de-8
tention program cannot mitigate public 9
safety threats associated with such indi-10
vidual; and 11
(B) if such detention is the only means 12
available to mitigate such threats. 13
(3) R
EMOVAL.—If detention is the only means 14
of effectuating the removal from the United States 15
of a pregnant individual subject to a final order of 16
deportation or removal, the Secretary, solely for the 17
purpose of such deportation or removal, may detain 18
the pregnant individual in temporary housing in ac-19
cordance with applicable temporary housing stand-20
ards for a period equal to the shorter of— 21
(A) the shortest possible period imme-22
diately preceding the deportation or removal of 23
the individual from the United States; and 24
(B) 5 days. 25
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(c) WEEKLYREVIEW.— 1
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall conduct 2
an individualized review of each noncitizen detained 3
pursuant to subsection (b)(2) not less frequently 4
than weekly to determine whether such noncitizen 5
continues to be subject to detention under such sub-6
section. Each such review shall be completed within 7
72 hours after being initiated. 8
(2) R
ELEASE.—Not later than 24 hours after 9
the Secretary determines pursuant to paragraph (1) 10
that a pregnant noncitizen is no longer subject to 11
detention under subsection (b)(2), the noncitizen 12
shall be released from the facility in which the non-13
citizen had been detained in accordance with safe re-14
lease standards. In carrying out such release, an of-15
ficer at such facility shall— 16
(A) prepare the noncitizen’s complete med-17
ical records, medications, and any supplies re-18
quired to maintain the noncitizen’s state of 19
health until the noncitizen can be seen by a 20
community health professional; and 21
(B) communicate with the noncitizen’s at-22
torney of record, sponsor, or any post-release 23
service provider as soon as details of the non-24
citizen’s planned release are available. 25
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SEC. 4. HUMANE TREATMENT OF PREGNANT DETAINED 1
NONCITIZENS WHILE IN DETENTION AND 2
CUSTODY. 3
(a) P
ROHIBITION ONRESTRAINT OFPREGNANTDE-4
TAINEDNONCITIZENS.— 5
(1) P
ROHIBITION.—Except as provided in para-6
graph (2), restraints may not be used on a noncit-7
izen who is in the physical custody of the Depart-8
ment of Homeland Security, including during trans-9
port, if the noncitizen is known to be— 10
(A) pregnant, including during labor and 11
delivery; 12
(B) lactating; or 13
(C) postpartum. 14
(2) E
XCEPTIONS.— 15
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding para-16
graph (1), and subject to subparagraph (B), 17
use of a restraint on a detained noncitizen de-18
scribed in paragraph (1) may be permitted only 19
in an extraordinary circumstance, except in the 20
case of a medical contraindication, in which the 21
facility administrator has ordered the use of the 22
restraint after making an individualized deter-23
mination that— 24
(i) credible, reasonable grounds exist 25
to believe the detained noncitizen poses an 26
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immediate and serious risk of physical 1
harm to others; or 2
(ii) reasonable grounds exist to believe 3
the detained noncitizen presents an imme-4
diate and credible risk of escape that can-5
not be reasonably minimized through any 6
other method. 7
(B) R
EQUIREMENT FOR LEAST RESTRIC -8
TIVE RESTRAINTS.—In the rare event of an ex-9
traordinary circumstance described in subpara-10
graph (A), only the least restrictive restraint 11
necessary shall be used, except that— 12
(i) if a doctor, nurse, or other health 13
professional treating a detained noncitizen 14
requests that a restraint not be used, the 15
detention officer accompanying the de-16
tained noncitizen shall immediately remove 17
any restraint; and 18
(ii) under no circumstance shall— 19
(I) a leg, waist, or 4-point re-20
straint be used; 21
(II) a wrist restraint be used to 22
bind the hands of such a detained 23
noncitizen behind the back of the de-24
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tained noncitizen or to another indi-1
vidual; 2
(III) a detained noncitizen be re-3
strained in a face-down position or on 4
their back; or 5
(IV) any restraint be used on any 6
detained noncitizen who is in labor or 7
delivering. 8
(3) R
ECORD OF EXTRAORDINARY CIR -9
CUMSTANCES.— 10
(A) R
EQUIREMENTS.—If a restraint is 11
used on a detained noncitizen pursuant to para-12
graph (2)(A), not later than 5 days after the 13
date on which the restraint was used, the facil-14
ity administrator shall— 15
(i) record in writing the finding that 16
describes the medical purpose or extraor-17
dinary circumstance that dictated the use 18
of the restraint; and 19
(ii) submit the finding to the Director. 20
(B) R
ETENTION.— 21
(i) F
ACILITY.—With respect to a writ-22
ten finding under subparagraph (A)(i), the 23
facility administrator shall— 24
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(I) keep the finding on file at the 1
applicable facility for not less than 5 2
years after the date on which the re-3
straint was used; and 4
(II) make a copy of the finding 5
available for public inspection on re-6
quest, only after making appropriate 7
redactions so as to protect personally 8
identifiable information. 9
(ii) U.S.
IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS 10
ENFORCEMENT.—The Director shall main-11
tain a written finding submitted to the Di-12
rector pursuant to subparagraph (A)(ii) 13
and make such finding available for public 14
inspection only after making appropriate 15
redactions to protect personally identifiable 16
information. 17
(b) P
ROHIBITION ON PRESENCE OF NONMEDICAL 18
S
TAFF.— 19
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-20
graph (2), nonmedical staff may not be present in 21
a room in which a pelvic or breast exam, labor, de-22
livery (whether vaginal or by cesarean delivery), or 23
treatment of any other symptom relating to a preg-24
nancy of a detained noncitizen is occurring unless 25
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their presence is specifically requested by medical 1
personnel and only for a duration that is actually re-2
quired to fulfill such request. 3
(2) E
XCEPTION.—If the presence of nonmedical 4
staff is requested by medical personnel, the nonmed-5
ical staff shall— 6
(A) be of the detained noncitizen’s gender 7
of choice, if practicable; and 8
(B) remain at a reasonable distance from 9
the detained noncitizen and face toward the de-10
tained noncitizen’s head to protect the privacy 11
of the detained noncitizen. 12
(3) U
SE OF RESTRAINTS.—If a restraint is used 13
on a detained noncitizen pursuant to subsection 14
(a)(2)(A), an employee of the Department of Home-15
land Security shall remain immediately outside the 16
room at all times so that the employee may promptly 17
remove the restraint if requested by medical per-18
sonnel pursuant to subsection (a)(2)(B)(i). 19
(c) A
CCESS TOSERVICES.— 20
(1) U.S.
IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCE -21
MENT CUSTODY.—A detained noncitizen in the cus-22
tody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement 23
shall have access to health care services, including 24
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comprehensive counseling and services relating to re-1
productive health care and pregnancy, including— 2
(A) routine and specialized prenatal care, 3
including adequate nutrition and exercise, HIV 4
testing and treatment, and prenatal vitamins 5
and vaccines; 6
(B) labor and delivery; 7
(C) treatment for complications from preg-8
nancy; 9
(D) substance use disorder treatment; 10
(E) postpartum physical and mental health 11
care, including postpartum reversible contracep-12
tive methods; 13
(F) no-cost supply of menstrual hygiene 14
products; 15
(G) lactation services; and 16
(H) family planning, continuation of pre- 17
detention contraceptive methods, and abortion 18
services. 19
(2) U.S.
CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION 20
CUSTODY.—The Commissioner shall ensure that 21
minimum standards of care are met for pregnant de-22
tained noncitizens who are in the custody of U.S. 23
Customs and Border Protection. 24
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(d) REQUIREMENT FOR INFORMEDMEDICALCON-1
SENT.—Services described in subsection (c)(1) may not be 2
performed on a detained noncitizen until the provider of 3
such services obtains informed consent from the noncit-4
izen. Medical treatment may not be administered to a de-5
tained noncitizen against such noncitizen’s will. 6
(e) M
EDICALCENTERARRANGEMENTS.—Each facil-7
ity administrator shall maintain— 8
(1) an arrangement with the nearest maternity 9
hospital and ensure facility staff know where to take 10
pregnant detained noncitizens in case of emergency; 11
and 12
(2) a policy to ensure the provision of proper 13
care if a detained noncitizen cannot be moved with 14
immediacy to a medical center. 15
SEC. 5. NOTICE OF RIGHTS AND TRAINING. 16
(a) N
OTICE OFDETAINEDNONCITIZENRIGHTS.— 17
The Secretary shall provide to each detained noncitizen, 18
in a language or manner that such noncitizen can under-19
stand, notice of the detained noncitizen’s rights under this 20
Act. 21
(b) T
RAINING FORDEPARTMENT OFHOMELANDSE-22
CURITYEMPLOYEES.—At the time of hiring, and annually 23
thereafter, the Secretary shall provide training regarding 24
the requirements under this Act to each employee of the 25
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Department of Homeland Security who is involved in the 1
detention or care of a pregnant detained noncitizen or a 2
postpartum parent of a newborn who is being detained 3
pursuant to chapter 4 of title II of the Immigration and 4
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1221 et seq.). 5
SEC. 6. REPORTS; RULEMAKING. 6
(a) R
EPORTS.— 7
(1) R
EPORTS BY FACILITY ADMINISTRATORS .— 8
Not later than 30 days after the end of each cal-9
endar quarter, the facility administrator of each de-10
tention facility in which 1 or more pregnant nonciti-11
zens were detained during such quarter shall submit 12
a written report to the Secretary that includes, with 13
respect to the facility during such quarter— 14
(A) an account of every instance of the use 15
of a restraint on a pregnant detained noncitizen 16
during pregnancy, labor, or postpartum recov-17
ery, including— 18
(i) the type of restraint; 19
(ii) the justification for the use of 20
such restraint; and 21
(iii) the name of the facility adminis-22
trator who made the individualized deter-23
mination pursuant to section 4(a)(2)(A); 24
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(B) the number of pregnant noncitizens 1
held at such facility; 2
(C) the number of released pregnant non-3
citizens who were held at such facility; 4
(D) the average length of detention of 5
pregnant noncitizens; 6
(E) the number of pregnant noncitizens 7
who were detained for between 15 and 30 days; 8
(F) the number of pregnant noncitizens 9
who were detained longer than 30 days; and 10
(G) the number of pregnant noncitizens 11
who gave birth while detained and a description 12
of the outcomes of any pregnancies that ended 13
in custody, including any pregnancy that re-14
sulted in a live birth, a stillbirth, a miscarriage, 15
an abortion, an ectopic pregnancy, maternal 16
morbidity, maternal death, neonatal death, or 17
preterm birth. 18
(2) A
UDIT AND REPORTS BY SECRETARY .—Not 19
later than 90 days after the last day of each fiscal 20
year, the Secretary shall— 21
(A) complete an audit of the information 22
described in subparagraphs (B) through (E) of 23
paragraph (1) contained in reports covering 24
such fiscal year; 25
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(B) submit a report to the appropriate 1
committees of Congress that includes a sum-2
mary of the information submitted pursuant to 3
paragraph (1), disaggregated by facility; and 4
(C) issue regulations in accordance with 5
relevant national standards that set minimum 6
standards for facilities providing medical care 7
to pregnant noncitizens. 8
(3) P
RIVACY.—None of the reports submitted 9
pursuant to paragraph (1) or (2) may contain the 10
individually identifying information of any detained 11
noncitizen or the noncitizen’s health care provider. 12
(4) P
UBLIC INSPECTION.— 13
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in 14
subparagraph (B), each report submitted under 15
this subsection shall be made available on a 16
publicly accessible website of the relevant agen-17
cy. 18
(B) F
ACILITY ADMINISTRATOR .—None of 19
the reports submitted under paragraph (1) or 20
(2) that is posted on a publicly accessible 21
website may contain the name of the facility ad-22
ministrator referred to in paragraph (1)(A)(iii). 23
(b) R
ULEMAKING.—The Secretary shall adopt regula-24
tions or policies to implement the requirements under this 25
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Act at each detention facility managed or overseen by the 1
Department of Homeland Security. 2
Æ
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