Immigration authorities arrested a woman in Nashville without a warrant while she was taking her breastfeeding infant and 2-year-old with Down syndrome to the doctor on May 2, according to the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.The children missed their "critical medical appointments" but are in the care of a neighbor, while their mother remains separated from them, 700 miles away in an immigration detention facility in Louisiana, a news release from TIRRC states. The 2-year-old with Down syndrome requires "intensive, ongoing medical treatment and therapy for multiple health complications," according to the release.Multiple legal, immigrant and civil rights groups are fighting for the mother's release.TIRRC, which announced the news July 29, said it is declining to use the woman's name to protect her safety.Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy is supposed to limit when officers can detain pregnant women or new mothers. The policy says ICE "generally" should not arrest, detain or take into custody women who are pregnant, postpartum or breastfeeding, "unless release is prohibited by law or exceptional circumstances exist."A couple hundred community members gather for the “Freedom From Fear Vigil in Response to ICE Killing in Minneapolis” led by the nonprofit Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, at Centennial Park in Nashville on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026.According to the news release, the woman arrived in the U.S. in 2022 seeking asylum after fleeing severe domestic violence in Guatemala. She has no criminal record and "has complied with every requirement in the immigration process since entering the United States," the release states.The woman is represented by lawyers at TIRRC and Sanctuary of the South, a private legal organization that represents people fighting deportation proceedings or in ICE custody.The release said the two legal groups partnered with the ACLU of Louisiana, the Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center and Amnesty International to file a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security.An employee at one of the organizations said this case is far from the only example of mothers being treated harshly."This cruel and degrading treatment of new mothers and pregnant women has been repeated hundreds of times over the last two years," Anthony Enriquez, vice president of U.S. advocacy and litigation at the Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center, said in the news release.Federal immigration agents enter an apartment unit while conducting immigration operations at an apartment complex in Antioch, Tennessee, April 29, 2026.Have questions about the justice system? Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him with questions, tips or story ideas at emealins@tennessean.com.This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: ICE arrests woman taking infant, toddler to doctor in Nashville