NASHVILLE — Sanctuary of the South and the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition filed a civil rights complaint with the DHS Office of the Inspector General on July 30, 2026, calling for the immediate release of Maria Perez. The complaint addresses the detention of a Guatemalan nursing mother who was arrested by ICE in Nashville on May 19 while preparing to take her children to a medical appointment.

Maria Perez is a pseudonym used by a Guatemalan asylum-seeker and nursing mother out of fear of immigration retaliation. Perez fled domestic violence in Guatemala and was seeking asylum in the U.S. at the time of her arrest.

ICE agents arrested Maria Perez in Nashville, Tennessee, on May 19. Agents arrived at Perez's home seeking the father of her children, who is separately facing federal charges, when they arrested Perez. Perez was taken into ICE custody while putting her daughters in a car and preparing to go to a medical appointment.

According to the civil rights complaint, Perez was not named in any warrant and was not the subject of the enforcement action. Advocates stated that Perez does not have a criminal history.

Perez has a 10-month-old baby and a 2-year-old child with Down syndrome. Perez was nursing her 10-month-old baby at the time of her arrest. Since Perez's detention, her daughters have been in the care of a neighbor. Maria Perez's older daughter, who has Down syndrome, has missed her weekly therapy sessions since the separation.

Perez was transferred to the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana, days after her arrest. Perez is being detained nearly 700 miles away from her family. The South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana, where Maria Perez is currently detained, is in a jurisdiction that does not allow bond for individuals who entered the country illegally.

The complaint regarding Perez is supported by the ACLU of Louisiana, the Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center, and Amnesty International. Perez's attorneys have filed a request for humanitarian parole and a federal habeas petition calling for her release.

ICE policy states officers should not detain or arrest people known to be pregnant, postpartum, or nursing unless there are exceptional circumstances such as national security risks. The civil rights complaint alleges Perez was detained in violation of the ICE policy directive regarding pregnant, postpartum, or nursing individuals. ICE Directive 11032.4, which dictates that the agency should generally not detain, arrest, or continue to detain individuals known to be pregnant, postpartum, or nursing, was allegedly violated in Maria Perez's case. ICE Directive 11064.4, which outlines steps to facilitate interaction between detained parents and their minor children, was allegedly violated in Maria Perez's case, as she was transferred to a facility 700 miles from her children without any steps taken to facilitate visitation.

Katie Blankenship is the founder and managing attorney of Sanctuary of the South. "A mother getting her children into car seats to go to a doctor’s appointment is just ripped away from her children," said Blankenship. "It’s just living an absolute nightmare," she said. "It’s a mother’s worst fear," she said.

Spring Miller, senior director of legal strategy at the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition, issued a statement regarding the case. "ICE and DHS continue to show blatant disregard not just for their own policies but for basic humanity," said Miller.