A mother preparing to take her two young children to a medical appointment never made it out of the driveway.

Instead, immigration officers arrived at her Nashville-area home, took her into custody and eventually transferred her hundreds of miles away. Her 10-month-old daughter, whom she was still breastfeeding, and her 2-year-old son, who has Down syndrome and heart problems, were left behind in the care of a neighbor.

The Guatemalan woman has been identified publicly by the pseudonym Maria Perez because of concerns about her safety. Advocates say she fled extreme domestic violence in her home country and came to the United States in 2022 seeking asylum.

Now, while her immigration case continues, Perez is being held at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana—nearly 700 miles from her children.

Her detention has prompted a legal challenge and a formal civil rights complaint from immigrant-rights organizations, which argue that federal agents separated a vulnerable nursing mother from her children in violation of an existing Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy.

According to her attorneys, ICE agents arrested Perez on May 19 as she was placing her children in a vehicle before taking them to the doctor. They said the officers did not present a warrant naming her and had originally come to the residence looking for the children’s father, who faces a separate federal case.

The arrest happened so suddenly that no meaningful plan was arranged for the children’s care.

Perez had no nearby relatives or established support system who could immediately assume responsibility for them. Her children ultimately remained with a neighbor, while their mother was taken first into federal custody and later transported out of Tennessee.

The separation disrupted more than their daily routine.

Advocates said both children missed important medical appointments after their mother was detained. Her toddler requires additional care because of Down syndrome and cardiac issues, while her infant had depended on Perez for breastfeeding.

For Perez, the abrupt end to nursing has also reportedly caused physical complications.

Her attorneys said she has suffered from the effects of being suddenly unable to breastfeed. Those problems have been made more difficult by diabetes, a condition she had been actively managing before her detention.

Emotionally, they described her as devastated.

Katie Blankenship, founder of Sanctuary of the South and one of the attorneys working on Perez’s immigration case, said the mother had become deeply despondent while being held far from her children.

The distance has intensified the family’s isolation. What began with an arrest outside their Nashville home has turned into a prolonged separation across state lines, leaving two young children without the mother who had been their primary source of care.

Perez’s legal team argues that her detention conflicts with ICE Directive 11032.4, a policy issued on July 1, 2021, concerning pregnant, postpartum and nursing individuals.

Under that directive, immigration officers generally should not arrest, detain or take nursing people into custody for administrative immigration violations unless detention is legally required or exceptional circumstances exist.

Such circumstances could include a national security concern or an imminent threat of harm.

Perez’s attorneys maintain that she presented no such danger. They say she has no criminal history, possessed valid work authorization and had complied with the requirements of her immigration proceedings since entering the country.

Her case began years before the arrest.

Perez left Guatemala after surviving severe domestic abuse and sought protection in the United States. Since arriving in 2022, she has been pursuing an asylum claim that remains unresolved.

Advocates say she followed the immigration process rather than attempting to avoid it. That history has become central to their argument that detaining her was unnecessary and that she should be allowed to return to her children while her case moves through the legal system.

The location of her detention has also become part of the dispute.

After her arrest in Tennessee, Perez was transferred to Louisiana. Her attorneys contend that the move placed her in a jurisdiction where access to a bond hearing is restricted for people classified as having entered the United States without authorization.

They believe the transfer has made it more difficult for her to secure release through the normal immigration process.

Her legal team has pursued several avenues to bring her home.

Attorneys filed requests for humanitarian parole, asking immigration authorities to release Perez because of the medical and caregiving needs of both mother and children. They also filed a federal habeas corpus petition in Louisiana, seeking a judge’s order ending her detention.

At the same time, multiple advocacy organizations began preparing a complaint to the Department of Homeland Security.

Those involved include Sanctuary of the South, the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana and Amnesty International.

Their complaint calls for Perez’s immediate release and argues that her detention disregarded protections specifically intended to prevent the separation of nursing parents from their babies.

The case has raised questions extending beyond one family.

ICE’s 2021 directive recognizes that detaining someone who is pregnant, recovering from childbirth or nursing can create serious health and humanitarian consequences. Although the policy remains in effect, advocates say reports have continued to emerge of people in those categories being taken into custody.

Perez’s situation illustrates how quickly those consequences can spread through a family.

Her infant was abruptly deprived of regular breastfeeding. Her toddler, already facing developmental and cardiac challenges, lost the daily presence of his mother. Medical visits were missed, and a neighbor was forced to take on responsibility for two children without the benefit of a carefully arranged transition.

Perez, meanwhile, was sent to another state while dealing with diabetes, the physical pain associated with suddenly stopping breastfeeding and the emotional distress of not knowing when she might see her children again.

The government has offered a different account of why she remains detained, pointing to allegations involving her immigration history and associations connected to the separate case involving the children’s father. Her attorneys dispute any suggestion that those circumstances justify keeping her from her children and insist that she has no criminal record.

The central question now rests with federal authorities and the courts: whether Perez will remain detained while her asylum case continues or be released on humanitarian grounds.

For her children, however, the issue is far less abstract.

A 10-month-old baby is separated from the mother who had been nursing her. A 2-year-old with significant medical needs is living without his primary caregiver. Neither child can understand immigration directives, detention jurisdictions or federal court petitions.

They only know that their mother left one morning as they prepared to visit the doctor—and did not come home.

Until a judge or immigration official intervenes, Perez remains in Louisiana, nearly 700 miles from the Nashville home where two small children are waiting for her return.