According to the publication, because she did not receive proper prenatal care while incarcerated, Monterroso-Lemus suffered a miscarriage.
On this year’s Mother’s Day, Iris Dayana Monterroso-Lemus found herself in Guatemala, a place she hadn’t called home in over ten years. At 38, the once lively woman with curly hair appeared frail and distressed.
Following her arrest by ICE in Lenoir City, she was taken to the Richwood Correctional Center in Louisiana, where she endured an ordeal. After days of asking for medical assistance, she tragically lost her pregnancy halfway through.
“I had him inside here for three days, in this Louisiana facility, my baby dead in my stomach, inside my stomach for three days, dead,” she said.
Nashville’s Mayor Freddie O’Connell (no relation, thankfully) has expressed his opposition to ICE enforcement, even going so far as to suggest exposing agents’ personal details. Given the anti-ICE sentiment prevalent in Tennessee, the story has captured widespread attention, attracting coverage from well-known media like Rolling Stone and The International Business Times UK. Meanwhile, a GoFundMe campaign organized by her boyfriend, Gary Bivens, is seeking to raise funds for her medical care and travel costs. As of now, the account has raised more than $6,000.
This all went down at the end of April. Now, over a month later, WA Rep. Jamila Jayapal has chosen to promote the story on her X account to loudly beat her anti-ICE, pro-illegal drum.
A pregnant woman lost her baby after ICE refused to give her prenatal care.
She begged for help and was denied. She was fed food full of cockroaches. She was forced to sleep on the floor.
This is absolutely disgusting and we should all be outraged. https://t.co/AtYPFMfZ6z
— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) June 24, 2025
“The Nashville Banner” article tied Monterroso-Lemus’s alleged abuse to Trump’s immigration crackdown in Nashville. This is our shocked face.
Monterroso-Lemus’s experience in detention comes amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants and the mounting claims of abuse and discrimination tied to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests across the country. In Nashville, ICE and the Tennessee Highway Patrol officials recently made 588 traffic stops in predominantly Latino neighborhoods as part of a joint operation that led to the arrests of 196 undocumented residents. Despite claims that ICE was only targeting criminals, fewer than half had prior criminal records. As the Banner reported, in the overnight operation between May 3 and 4, THP made more than twice as many traffic stops as Metro Nashville police did during both days combined, fueling allegations of racial profiling.
Questions remain about the identities of those arrested and what conditions they face once detained. On May 14, ICE Acting Director Todd M. Lyons announced that nine detainees have died in custody since Trump took office, reigniting concerns about the quality of medical care in immigration detention centers. The deaths have drawn attention to the treatment of immigrants while in ICE custody, including pregnant women, who, under recent Democratic administrations, had been largely shielded from detention.
So, legitimate questions would be:
1) How long has Monterroso-Lemus been in America? According to the article, she hasn’t called Guatemala home for over a decade–so have her illegal activities spanned administrations from Obama to Trump to Biden and then to Trump again?
2) Where are the father(s) of all these children?
3) Why did Monterroso-Lemus lose custody of one or all of her children?
An additional question: Is Monterroso-Lemus’ mother a legal immigrant at all?
Inquiring minds and any journalist worth their salt should want to know these things.
“The Nashville Banner” article, as well as other reports, detail that Monterroso-Lemus and her boyfriend, Gary Bivens, have been together just over a year; therefore, she has no standing as a spouse of an American citizen. Monterroso-Lemus was arrested on March 26, and according to the Nashville Banner article, was “transferred several times,” between Illinois, Tennessee, and Alabama, before landing in Louisiana in the first week of April. Monterroso-Lemus was given a medical evaluation because the article mentions medical records indicating that she was already four to five weeks pregnant (first trimester).
It is only when she reached the ICE facility in Louisiana that Monterroso-Lemus claims she suffered abuse and did not receive proper care, even though she begged.
Then, on April 29, she was admitted to Ochsner LSU Health – Monroe Medical Center, a labor and delivery hospital. The physician’s note states that Monterroso-Lemus complained of experiencing no fetal movement, lower abdominal pain and an increase in vaginal discharge for three days before she was hospitalized.
“She states she told the doctor where she is at that this pregnancy didn’t feel right a couple days ago, but nothing was done,” the report reads.
That day she went through spontaneous vaginal delivery after experiencing intrauterine fetal death. The clinical notes state that the pregnancy was “complicated by no PNC,” meaning she had received no prenatal care. She gave birth under the constant watch of two federal guards by her bedside, as the clinical notes confirm.
She was 37 years old, meaning she had a geriatric pregnancy that is higher risk AND experienced pelvic pain that sent her to the hospital in February BEFORE she was detained.
Once again, salient facts that any curious journalist should explore. But, I digress…
As with many of these articles detailing the horrors of ICE abuse under the Trump administration, much of this is anecdotal. Bivens and Monterroso-Lemus are the only ones telling this story, without corroboration, and with many questions (like the ones above) left unanswered. If I were digging, I would want to hear what Monterroso-Lemus’ mother has to say. What is clear is that Monterroso-Lemus’ story fits the leftist and Democrat narrative to a T. Therefore, legacy media and purported “non-partisan” journalism arms like “The Nashville Banner” choose to run with it.
Jayapal obviously stepped on a rake. But then, Asst. DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin grabbed that rake and whacked Jayapal one more time with facts.
Absolutely FALSE. She had FULL medical, prenatal care. We have documentation to show it.
Iris Dayana Monterroso-Lemus, 37, is a citizen of Guatemala who has been arrested multiple times for child abuse and is wanted on an active warrant for homicide. https://t.co/5tXf8LUkJY
— Tricia McLaughlin (@TriciaOhio) June 25, 2025
Child abuse AND homicide? That’s a lot. A commenter on Jayapal’s post had these salient points to make.
So, a few points here. There were reports from 2023 that the facility was not up to code, so why didn’t the Biden admin, such as Mayorkas or Harris, the Border Czar, get it up to standard? She apparently had 6 kids while in America, why didn’t she apply for citizenship during all…
— Beth Mosher (@CaseyDogMo) June 25, 2025
So, a few points here. There were reports from 2023 that the facility was not up to code, so why didn’t the Biden admin, such as Mayorkas or Harris, the Border Czar, get it up to standard? She apparently had 6 kids while in America, why didn’t she apply for citizenship during all those years? There’s a lot more to unpack with your attempt to smear the Trump admin over this, but I’ll close with this-lack of prenatal care doesn’t cause a stillbirth in just 3 days, that indicates other pre-existing medical problems and/or lack of prenatal care throughout her pregnancy. I’m embarrassed to have you representing my state, you’re a pathetic and you support everyone but your constituents.
According to the publications running away with this story, Iris Dayana Monterroso-Lemus has already been deported back to Guatemala. So, can we expect Jayapal and her colleagues to cry that she did not receive due process and demand that she be returned back to America to be with her children?
Cue the “Heartbroken Tennessee Mother” headlines.
