Whistleblower complaint alleges mass hysterectomies at ICE detention center

[Stevicus]

‘Like an Experimental Concentration Camp’: Whistleblower Complaint Alleges Mass Hysterectomies at ICE Detention Center

Several legal advocacy groups on Monday filed a whistleblower complaint on behalf of a nurse at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center documenting “jarring medical neglect” within the facility, including a refusal to test detainees for the novel coronavirus and an exorbitant rate of hysterectomies being performed on immigrant women.

The nurse, Dawn Wooten, was employed at the Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC) in Georgia, which is operated by LaSalle Corrections, a private prison company. The complaint was filed with the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by advocacy groups Project South, Georgia Detention Watch, Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, and South Georgia Immigrant Support Network.

Multiple women came forward to tell Project South about what they perceived to be the inordinate rate at which women in ICDC were subjected to hysterectomies – a surgical operation in which all or part of the uterus is removed. Additionally, many of the immigrant women who underwent the procedure were reportedly “confused” when asked to explain why they had the surgery, with one detainee likening their treatment to prisoners in concentration camps.

“When I met all these women who had had surgeries, I thought this was like an experimental concentration camp. It was like they’re experimenting with our bodies,” the detainee said.

According to Wooten, ICDC consistently used a particular gynecologist – outside the facility – who almost always opted to remove all or part of the uterus of his female detainee patients.

“Everybody he sees has a hysterectomy—just about everybody,” Wooten said, adding that, “everybody’s uterus cannot be that bad.”

“We’ve questioned among ourselves like goodness he’s taking everybody’s stuff out…That’s his specialty, he’s the uterus collector. I know that’s ugly…is he collecting these things or something…Everybody he sees, he’s taking all their uteruses out or he’s taken their tubes out. What in the world.”

Wooten – who is being represented in the matter by the Government Accountability Project – also confirmed that many of the detained women told her that they didn’t understand why they were being forced to have the procedure. She explained that some of the nurses who didn’t speak Spanish obtained consent from detainees “by simply googling Spanish.”

The complaint details several accounts from detainees, including one woman who was not properly anesthetized during the procedure and heard the aforementioned doctor tell the nurse he had mistakenly removed the wrong ovary, resulting in her losing all reproductive ability. Another said she was scheduled for the procedure but when she questioned why it was necessary, she was given at least three completely different answers.

Whistleblower blasts Georgia immigration detention center’s COVID-19 response

A coalition of advocacy groups filed a federal complaint on Monday against the private company that operates an immigration detention center in South Georgia, alleging the company is failing to protect detainees and employees from the spread of COVID-19.

Filed with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, the 27-page complaint is based partly on the information supplied by a whistleblower identified as Dawn Wooten, a licensed practical nurse who worked in the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla. She is scheduled to speak at a news conference at noon Tuesday in downtown Atlanta.


She told the inspector general the detention center refused to test symptomatic detainees for COVID-19, failed to distribute personal protective equipment to staff and systematically underreported COVID-19 cases, according to the advocacy groups.

ICE's response:

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does not comment on matters presented to the Office of the Inspector General, which provides independent oversight and accountability within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE takes all allegations seriously and defers to the OIG regarding any potential investigation and/or results. That said, in general, anonymous, unproven allegations, made without any fact-checkable specifics, should be treated with the appropriate skepticism they deserve.

The agency maintains that the Irwin County Detention Center has been inspected multiple times, with and without warning, and that the facility has been found to be in compliance with Performance Based National Detention Standards.

I just hope that there's a thorough investigation to this.

 

[Lyndon]

and people keep telling us we're not dealing with fascism and nazis

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

heartbreaking

 

[sun rise]

and people keep telling us we're not dealing with fascism and nazis

The gaslighting and general propaganda coming from the current regime just needs to be ignored. I'm assuming anything that a member of the current regime says is a total lie until proven otherwise.

 

[exchemist]

‘Like an Experimental Concentration Camp’: Whistleblower Complaint Alleges Mass Hysterectomies at ICE Detention Center





Whistleblower blasts Georgia immigration detention center’s COVID-19 response



ICE's response:



I just hope that there's a thorough investigation to this.

It reads to me like a case of the US medicine-for-profit system running amok, rather than some kind of Nazi experimentation, as suggested.

I strongly suspect that, if this story is true, it will turn out to be neglect, whereby a dodgy gynaecologist has been allowed to make a profit from unnecessary surgery, paid for by the state while these women are in detention. But a disgusting state of affairs, undoubtedly, if it is substantiated. It is not the first story of these ICE detention centres being run in a Kafka-esque manner and mistreating people.

 

[epronovost]

It reads to me like a case of the US medicine-for-profit system running amok, rather than some kind of Nazi experimentation, as suggested.

I strongly suspect that, if this story is true, it will turn out to be neglect, whereby a dodgy gynaecologist has been allowed to make a profit from unnecessary surgery, paid for by the state while these women are in detention. But a disgusting state of affairs, undoubtedly, if it is substantiated. It is not the first story of these ICE detention centres being run in a Kafka-esque manner and mistreating people.

There are several precedents of forced sterilisation of ethnic minorities in Canada and the US. It used to be linked to the hygenist movement in medecine in the first half of the 20th century. I wouldn't be so surprised if such a policy actually continued into the present day albeit in less widesprayed way.

 

[Twilight Hue]

‘Like an Experimental Concentration Camp’: Whistleblower Complaint Alleges Mass Hysterectomies at ICE Detention Center





Whistleblower blasts Georgia immigration detention center’s COVID-19 response



ICE's response:



I just hope that there's a thorough investigation to this.

How did hysterectomies come into the picture? Anti anchor baby legislation or something?

When did this start?

Are hysterectomies routine procedure for immigrants or illegals?

 

[exchemist]

How did hysterectomies come into the picture? Anti anchor baby legislation or something?

When did this start?

Are hysterectomies routine procedure for immigrants or illegals?

These are the questions that cry out for an answer, if this story is true. We need the name of this gynaecologist, a list of the operations he has performed and the stories of some of the women involved, first hand.

 

[Twilight Hue]

These are the questions that cry out for an answer, if this story is true. We need the name of this gynaecologist, a list of the operations he has performed and the stories of some of the women involved, first hand.

Its the first I heard of this.

 

[exchemist]

Its the first I heard of this.

Yes it's news. But it needs urgent investigation, obviously.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Yes it's news. But it needs urgent investigation, obviously.

Let's hope so.

 

[exchemist]

Let's hope so.

Here's the story: Ice detainees faced medical neglect and hysterectomies, whistleblower alleges

Seems it is in the hands of lawyers already. So the story will get a good airing when it gets to court.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Here's the story: Ice detainees faced medical neglect and hysterectomies, whistleblower alleges

Seems it is in the hands of lawyers already. So the story will get a good airing when it gets to court.

Hysterectomies sounds pretty invasive into the realm of human rights abuse if its not voluntary.

 

[exchemist]

Hysterectomies sounds pretty invasive into the realm of human rights abuse if its not voluntary.

Sounds like a question of "informed consent" if no effort is made to get someone who speaks Spanish. (I find it fantastic that in a country like the USA, where a quarter of the population speaks Spanish, they could not be bothered to arrange a Spanish-speaking doctor for this sort of thing to be discussed - but we shall see).

 

[Stevicus]

The facility is run by a private corrections company, LaSalle Corrections. I found an article about this company: LaSalle Corrections: A Family-Run Prison Firm | Prison Legal News

 

[Stevicus]

These are the questions that cry out for an answer, if this story is true. We need the name of this gynaecologist, a list of the operations he has performed and the stories of some of the women involved, first hand.

The complaint didn't name the gynecologist, but I'm sure we'll find out who he is eventually.

 

[Revoltingest]

It took only the 2nd post for Godwin's Law to apply.

 

[ADigitalArtist]

It took only the 2nd post for Godwin's Law to apply.

Godwin's Law is not a tool to shut down conversation of actual facist behavior, of which ethnic cleansing applies. Though, if true, certainly not the first time, unique to Nazi Germany, or even the first time in the US.

 

[Revoltingest]

Godwin's Law is not a tool to shut down conversation of actual facist behavior, of which ethnic cleansing applies. Though, if true, certainly not the first time, unique to Nazi Germany, or even the first time in the US.

Still, attempting nazification of the
conversation is counter-productive.

 

[ADigitalArtist]

Still, attempting nazification of the
conversation is counter-productive.

For apologists to that behavior, sure.