Tales of a Flow Stayed by Nothing: Menstruation in Immigration Detention

Abstract

Most female migrants who are held in the U.S. civil immigration detention are of menstruating age. Yet many face difficulties in obtaining the products needed to manage their periods as well as related medical care.

The fact that the federal government has not consistently met their obligation to provide migrant women and girls within their charge with adequate period supplies and related medical care highlights the problematic way in which civil immigration detention, ostensibly designed not to punish, nevertheless impermissibly punishes female migrants.

Keywords: immigration, menstruation, detention, jail. incarceration, prison, female, period

JEL Classification: K1, K37