U.S. Pauses Deportations for Women Alleging Abuse at ICE Facility
Following the alleged abuse of immigrant women held at a detention facility in Georgia, the United States has agreed to pause deportations until the investigation is complete.
A consent motion was filed in a U.S. District Court on November 24th and was initiated by the accusers' attorneys and authorities connected to the detention center. The motion asks that any court proceedings be scheduled after January 21, 2021 - coincidentally a day after President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration.
The motion also requests that any detainee who has "substantially similar factual allegations" not be deported as it's not yet clear if there are additional victims who have not spoken out. The consent motion has not yet been approved by U.S. District Judge W. Louis Sands.
The motion comes just in time for those who were at imminent risk for deportation. An unknown number of accusers have already been deported.
One woman, Yanira Yesenia Oldaker, was on the brink of deportation, according to a statement she gave to The Guardian. Oldaker recounts, "The examination was horrible. He hurt me mentally and physically. He caused me a lot of pain."
Allegations against Georgia Gynecologist
Dozens of women have brought forth allegations against Gynecologist Dr. Mahendra Amin. Dr. Amin worked with women held at the Irwin County Detention Center in Acela, Georgia. It is there that over 43 women have alleged being abused and receiving surgeries and other procedures that they did not understand or consent to.
Allegations include hysterectomies and other procedures that left the women sterile. The allegations target other individuals at the detention center, but a majority of the allegations are directed at Dr. Amin.
A group of 100 congressional democrats expressed to the departments of Justice and Homeland Security that "at least six victims of the alleged nonconsensual, unnecessary, and potentially sterilizing gynecological procedures have reportedly been deported."
In total, 105 members of Congress have pushed for a freeze in deportation because the investigation is ongoing and the deportation of alleged victims would be consistent with the destruction of evidence.
Attorneys representing the women who are alleging abuse have come out against ICE, stating that there have been patterns of intimidation from the Department after the allegations were filed. When women first started coming forward with accusations, several who had been held at the center for quite some time suddenly faced immediate deportation.
The Irwin County Detention Center is a facility privately operated by LaSalle Corrections, a for-profit entity. LaSalle Corrections has denied any wrongdoing. A LaSalle Corrections spokesperson shared the following: "LaSalle Corrections has a strict zero tolerance policy for any kind of inappropriate behavior in our facilities and takes all allegations of such mistreatment seriously. Our company strongly refutes these allegations and any implications of misconduct at the ICDC."
Nurse Whistleblower Sparks Investigation
The allegations of misconduct came to light because of a whistleblower complaint. Dawn Wooten was a nurse who worked inside the facility. She filed a complaint with the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security.
In her complaint, Wooten explained that immigrant detainees were receiving unnecessary medical treatment as well as being deprived of necessary treatment, including COVID-19 testing. The nurse noted that the patients were being seen by the doctor and were leaving with bruises and undergoing unnecessary procedures as she noticed a spike in hysterectomies.
After filing the complaint, the nurse was demoted in July. The official demotion was because she missed work after showing coronavirus symptoms. She was then placed on an "as-needed" basis as opposed to a full-time employee. Wooten, however, believes that the demotion is directly linked to her complaint.
History of Malpractice
This is not the first time that Dr. Amin has been investigated for misconduct. In 2015, the Justice Department investigated a case in which Dr. Amin, along with other physicians, made false claims to Medicare and Medicaid. The case was eventually settled in a $525,000 civil settlement.
