Immigrant Women Abused In Irwin Georgia Detention Center

How immigrant women were subjected to medical procedures without their consent

Unbelievable but not shocking as doctors over the years have victimized people of color. From the 1800s to the current day, much has been going on behind the medical scene. During the 1960s in Mississippi, women were given hysterectomies when they went to the doctor for one ailment and came out sterilized without their permission.

Recently a nurse told the Country about alleged abuses that were happening at the Georgia’s Irwin Detention Center in 2020 where she worked. She filed a complaint with the Homeland Security inspector general that lead to more than 170 lawmakers demanding an investigation.

Most recently immigrants who were detained by ICE in a Georgia detention center have allegedly been subjected to medical abuse and when they spoke of these atrocities publicly or to the federal investigators were deported under the Trump administration. In the wake of this realization, the Biden administration recently closed two immigration detention centers in Georgia and Massachusetts as they are currently under federal investigation for abusing detained immigrants. Reportedly, there were 19 alleged abuses at the Georgia Detention center.

These closures were due to the effort of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas who demanded that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement stop detaining immigrants at both centers along with terminating an agreement with the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office of Massachusetts.

According to the detained women, they were subjected to unnecessary and unrequested medical procedures at the hands of a local gynecologist, Dr. Mahendra Amin, who denies and is currently under investigation. As a result of these medical procedures, some of the women continue to suffer the effects of these procedures, that included sterilizations, removal of their uterus, ovaries and fallopian tubes according to medical experts. Some of the women had medical procedures done and are not aware of what happened to their bodies. Due to these accounts that are under investigation, ICE personnel and the detained immigrants have been relocated.

In support of these detainee being subjected to such cruelty, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stated to the ICE action Director who closed the two sites, “Allow me to state one foundational principle: We will not tolerate the mistreatment of individuals in civil immigration detention or substandard conditions of detention.”

The Biden administration has ordered the Justice Department not to renew contracts with private prison companies. There are hundreds of immigration detention facilities in the United States mostly run by private prison companies, where 80% of the population are detained immigrants.

The doctors at these detention centers are on the payroll of the Homeland Security Department to treat detainees. Advocates and lawyers for these immigrants are calling for more accountability and the women who spoke out are yet facing deportation need to have their final orders removed. Lawsuits have been filed seeking temporary restraining orders against the removals of these detainees, arguing that the then -Trump administration violated the women’s 1st Amendment, due-process rights, and a longtime policies protecting those cooperating in criminal investigations. In the midst of deportation, many of these women were separated from their U.S. citizen children and are petitioning the reopening of their immigration cases and return through humanitarian parole.

Along with these two detention centers, the other centers around the country are going to be subjected to review to determine if reports of abuse exists and to mandate that the Homeland Security Leadership must ensure detainees get quality treatment, descent conditions of detention and legitimate proper operational needs.

The Massachusetts detention center Bristol Sheriff’s Office was sued by the ACLU over a violent incident related to a protest over COVID-19 where several immigrants were hospitalized and during the protest had dogs and pepper spray sprayed on them, violating their civil rights.

In conclusion, there needs to be more accountability. The Homeland Security inspector general noted that due to the multilayered contracting system, belies the problem where inadequate accountability of holding facility contractors accountable for such atrocities and not meeting performance standards. It was found that Irwin center was constantly in violation of national detention standards mistreating detainee’s life, health, safety and well being as they referral 1,000 detainees a year for outside medical attention.

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