Rumor spread a pregnant woman had stillbirth in ICE custody. Here's what we know

In June 2025, a rumor began to spread that a pregnant woman in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had a stillbirth after being denied help despite begging for assistance. 

For example, one post on X (archived) said the woman was detained in Lenoir City, Tennessee, and lost the baby in a correctional center in Louisiana:

The post had 2.9 million views as of this writing. The same claim appeared elsewhere on X, Instagram and Facebook. Snopes readers also searched the site and emailed seeking confirmation that the rumor was real. 

The rumor stemmed from a report by the Nashville Banner, a nonprofit Tennessee news organization, citing interviews with the Guatemalan woman, Iris Monterroso-Lemus, and her partner, Gary Bivens.

According to the report, ICE took custody of the woman in March 2025 after police in Lenoir City, where she lived, detained her. Monterroso-Lemus was seeking to regain custody of two of her children from her mother but missed a court hearing, prompting police to pick her up. 

Monterroso-Lemus, who was pregnant with a child due in August or September, was then transferred to Illinois, back to Tennessee and to Alabama before arriving in Louisiana, according to the report. She said she asked for medical attention and did not receive it anywhere, and even slept on the floor in Alabama. She also said food in Louisiana was inedible and that she was not eating adequately for a pregnant woman. 

In late April, Monterroso-Lemus was taken to a hospital in Monroe, Louisiana, the Banner reported, after complaining of "experiencing no fetal movement, lower abdominal pain and an increase in vaginal discharge for three days before she was hospitalized." She gave birth to a stillborn baby under the watch of two federal guards, according to medical notes reviewed by the Banner. 

She was later deported to Guatemala, where she still was at the time of this writing.

Snopes attempted to reach out to ICE, Monterroso-Lemus and Bivens to confirm the story and we will update this report should they respond. 

This wasn't the first time a woman reportedly had a stillbirth in ICE custody. In 2019, during the first term of U.S. President Donald Trump, The New York Times reported a Honduran woman lost her pregnancy in similar circumstances.