ICE deported pregnant asylum seeker Zharick Buitrago Ortiz from Atlanta amid reported medical distress, pending asylum claim

On January 21, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed Zharick Daniela Buitrago Ortiz, a 21-year-old Colombian national who was eight months pregnant, on a deportation flight from Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to Colombia. Buitrago Ortiz had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in November 2025 seeking asylum along with her mother and younger siblings, after her father was killed in Colombia for reporting political corruption; because she was over 18, she was separated from her family in custody, and her attorney said she later learned the father of her unborn child had also been killed there. Her mother passed a credible- fear interview, was released, and filed an asylum application; Buitrago Ortiz did not pass her own credible-fear interview and was issued an expedited removal order, but her attorney said she had a pending derivative asylum claim as a dependent on her mother's application.

Her attorney, Anthony Enriquez of the Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center, said Buitrago Ortiz was in "serious medical distress," experiencing intense, shooting pain in her back and abdomen in the lead-up to the flight, and that ICE agents denied her medical care despite the pain. "This is an abuse of a pregnant woman in detention," Enriquez said. "This is an example of ICE acting without any type of compassion for someone who is on the point of labor." DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin disputed the claim on the record, telling Newsweek "there are no records of her being in medical distress" and that ICE's policy requires anyone staged for removal to be medically cleared. McLaughlin also said Buitrago Ortiz was a "suspected Tren de Aragua gang member" who had previously been removed and illegally reentered the country, and that she had been "granted a voluntary departure"; her attorney's account, corroborated by multiple outlets, describes her instead as arriving in the country once, in November 2025, with no criminal record and no prior hearings, and as having been placed on an involuntary removal flight over her objection.

Hours after the flight, Buitrago Ortiz's attorneys filed an emergency petition for a writ of habeas corpus and a temporary restraining order in the Northern District of Georgia. Following an evening telephone conference, U.S. District Judge Sarah E. Geraghty granted the motion in part, enjoining further removal only if Buitrago Ortiz had not yet left the country and, if she had already departed, ordering ICE to provide her constitutionally adequate healthcare for as long as she remained in its custody. By the time the order issued, ICE had already placed her on the plane to Colombia, mooting the injunction against removal itself.

Updates

2026-02-17 — Amended habeas petition filed with medical affidavits [4]

Buitrago Ortiz's attorneys filed an amended federal habeas petition, including sworn affidavits from Buitrago Ortiz, from attorney Anthony Enriquez, and from OB-GYN Dr. Carolyn Sufrin addressing her medical treatment, as her case against DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pamela Bondi, and other named officials continued in the Northern District of Georgia.