A Lenoir City family is grieving a loss that now stretches across two countries. Iris Dayana Monterroso‑Lemus says she miscarried a mid‑term pregnancy while in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody after being arrested in East Tennessee in March 2025. Her fiancé, Gary Bivens, keeps the baby’s ashes on his bedside table in Lenoir City and has launched a GoFundMe to cover transport and burial costs. Monterroso‑Lemus was deported to Guatemala on May 9, 2025, and is staying with family in Petén, while three of her other children remain in Tennessee with her mother.
According to the Nashville Banner, Monterroso‑Lemus was taken into custody after a March 2025 arrest in Lenoir City for missing a custody hearing. She was transferred through several facilities before ending up at Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana. Clinical notes reviewed by the Banner describe her pregnancy as “complicated by no pnc” and indicate she delivered the remains while under constant guard. Bivens told the outlet he plans to move to Guatemala once he can afford to ship their belongings and the baby’s ashes.
DHS Pushback And A Questioned Warrant
By late June 2025, the Department of Homeland Security was publicly pushing back. In a formal “fact check,” DHS said ICE had provided Monterroso‑Lemus with “prenatal care including an ultrasound and OB‑GYN visit,” along with dental care, medication, and hospital admission.
The same DHS statement said she was the subject of an active homicide warrant in Guatemala. But The Daily Beast reported that court records show a Guatemalan judge voided that warrant on May 13, a detail the department did not address in its public rebuttal.
A Wider Pattern, Advocates Say
Advocates argue that what happened to Monterroso‑Lemus is part of a bigger, disturbing pattern. Human Rights Watch reported that DHS data show ICE deported 363 pregnant, postpartum, or nursing women between Jan. 1, 2025, and Feb. 16, 2026. By late September 2025, 16 miscarriages in custody had been recorded.
Rights groups and lawmakers say those numbers highlight chronic problems with access to prenatal care in detention. ICE’s own 2021 pregnancy directive, Directive 11032.4, instructs that pregnant, postpartum, and nursing individuals generally should not be detained except in limited circumstances, according to ICE.
Local Fallout And Federal Action
Back in Lenoir City, Bivens is caring for the couple’s older children and still talking about uprooting to Guatemala once he can pull together the transportation and burial costs, the Banner reported. The Nashville Banner also noted the family’s mounting financial strain as they try to find some closure after the loss.
In Washington, the case is landing in the middle of a broader policy fight. On May 7, 2026, Rep. Sydney Kamlager‑Dove introduced an updated Pregnant Women in Custody Act that would expand data collection and protections for people who are pregnant or nursing while in custody, according to the bill text on GovInfo.
Legal Questions And Oversight
The DHS fact‑check and the documents behind it have triggered a rush of records requests as reporters and advocates try to see what the government is relying on. One Freedom of Information Act request is catalogued on MuckRock, seeking the files DHS cited in its public statement.
Bivens has said he has hired attorneys to review the records, The Daily Beast reported. If the dueling accounts about her medical care and legal status are borne out in the paperwork, they could set the stage for congressional oversight and potential civil claims.
For now, Monterroso‑Lemus, her family in Lenoir City, and advocates around the country are staring at two starkly different narratives: a woman who says she begged for help and a department that insists it provided it. The case has quickly become a flashpoint in national debates over detention policy, prenatal care behind bars, and just how transparent the agencies running those systems really are.
