U.S. Agrees To Pause Deportations For Women Alleging Abuse At ICE Facility

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Protesters gather for a news conference in Atlanta earlier this year, shortly after the release of a complaint by whistleblower Dawn Wooten, a nurse at Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Ga.

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Jeff Amy/AP

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Whistleblower Alleges ‘Medical Neglect,’ Questionable Hysterectomies Of ICE Detainees

In the letter they noted that, though federal investigations are reportedly underway, «at least six victims of the alleged nonconsensual, unnecessary, and potentially sterilizing gynecological procedures have reportedly been deported.»

Others awaiting conversations with investigators stood in «imminent risk» of deportation, the lawmakers said last week, while still others had narrowly avoided the possibility of removal from the country. As NPR’s Joel Rose reported in September, Cameroonian immigrant Pauline Binam was on the tarmac when her scheduled deportation was averted.

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Another woman, Yanira Yesenia Oldaker, said to The Guardian that she was also close to deportation when her attorneys successfully intervened.

«The examination was horrible,» she told the British newspaper, referring to an examination that she says Dr. Mahendra Amin performed on her without her consent earlier this year. «He hurt me mentally and physically. He caused me a lot of pain.»

More than a dozen other women have alleged mistreatment specifically by Amin, a gynecologist, to whom the facility has sent patients. A 27-page whistleblower complaint by a nurse at Irwin described some of these claims in mid-September, along with other allegations of poor medical care and inadequate COVID-19 protections.

Amin, through an attorney, has previously denied the allegations. And in a statement released to news outlets earlier this year, an ICE spokesperson said that «any implication that ICE is attempting to impede the investigation by conducting removals of those being interviewed is completely false.»

Read the whistleblower complaint

The case is 7:20-cv-224 filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia.

• Immigration law
• Immigration Customs and Enforcement
• Immigration