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<font size="1"><a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/10/27/ice-irwin-women-hysterectomies-senate/">https://theintercept.com/2020/10/27/ice-irwin-women-hysterectomies-senate/</a>
</font><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Number of Women Alleging Misconduct by ICE Gynecologist Nearly Triples</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">John Washington - October 27, 2020<br></div></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><div><p><u>At least 17</u>
women treated by a doctor alleged to have performed unnecessary or
overly aggressive gynecological procedures without proper informed
consent remain in detention at Irwin County Detention Center, a
privately run facility in Georgia housing U.S. Immigrations and Customs
Enforcement detainees, according to a briefing and written materials
submitted by attorneys and advocates to Senators in a closed-door
meeting on Capitol Hill. The total number of women known to have been
seen by the doctor since 2018 who say they underwent or were pressured
to undergo unnecessary treatments has risen to 57 — a higher number than
previously known — according to the group of lawyers.</p>
<p>The new numbers of relevant cases and women who remain in detention
were included in the materials submitted to the closed-door meeting on
Capitol Hill about the ordeal over women’s medical care at
Irwin. Organized by the Senate Democratic Caucus, attorney Sarah
Owings of Owings MacNorlin law firm in Atlanta, two women previously
detained in Irwin, and four independent doctors presented recent
findings, including more than 60 pages of written materials, in a Monday
briefing for the senators. The briefings came as part of Congressional
investigations into the allegation, which Democratic leaders in both
houses of Congress have pledged to look in to.</p>
<p>As the number of women <a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/09/15/hysterectomies-ice-irwin-whistleblower/">alleging</a>
medical misconduct at Irwin, which is run by the private prison company
LaSalle Corrections, grows, advocates for detainees worry that there
may never be a full accounting. The numbers presented to the Senate on
Monday were limited to only those cases lawyers could identify, the
advocates said. Because of the opacity of the immigration system and the
constant flux of detainees — as well as the deportation of witnesses
and survivors — a comprehensive review is unlikely.</p></div><blockquote><span></span><p>“It pains me to know that there could be many more women out there who will never be able to talk about what happened to them.”</p></blockquote><div><p>“It
pains me to know that there could be many more women out there who will
never be able to talk about what happened to them and the abuse that
they suffered while at Irwin, let alone receive a measure of redress,
while living with the life-long damage to their bodies and spirits,”
said Azadeh Shahshahani, the legal and advocacy director of Project
South, which first raised the issues in a whistleblower complaint. “ICE
and the private prison corporation LaSalle must be held to account.”</p>
<p>In the Senate briefing, the doctors and former detainees outlined a
pattern of gynecological operations conducted by Dr. Mahendra Amin, the
doctor at the center of the allegations, and the “uniform absence of
truly informed consent,” according to materials submitted on Capitol
Hill by the coalition of attorneys, advocates, and women recently
detained in Irwin. After <a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/10/02/ice-irwin-amin-obgyn-cameroon-women/">allegations</a> of the<a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/09/15/hysterectomies-ice-irwin-whistleblower/"> medical abuses came to light</a> in September, following the whistleblower complaint first <a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/09/14/ice-detention-center-nurse-whistleblower/">reported</a> by The Intercept, ICE said it stopped referring patients to Amin.</p>
<p>The materials submitted to Congress were compiled by on-the ground
organizations; attorneys, including Owings; and advocates, led by the
South Georgia Immigrant Support Network, Project South, the Georgia
Latino Alliance for Human Rights, Georgia Detention Watch, and the
Southern Poverty Law Center’s Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative.</p></div><div><p>In
response to an inquiry from The Intercept about the growing numbers of
women alleging medical misconduct and congressional interest in the
case, Amin’s lawyer, Scott Grubman, sent a statement responding to a Los
Angeles Times<a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-10-22/women-allege-medical-abuse-georgia-immigration-detention"> story </a>published
last week about a medical review of some of the immigration detainees’
cases. In the statement, Grubman, who said the doctor could not comment
on individual cases because of privacy regulations, claims that there
are “serious questions to the veracity” of the LA Times reporting,
specifically citing that the team of medical experts didn’t request
medical records from Irwin County Hospital or Amin himself. (Records of
medical procedures are also maintained by ICE and can be requested by
attorneys or detainees.)</p>
<p>Grubman, who did not respond to specific follow-up questions from The
Intercept, has maintained throughout the ordeal that Amin is
cooperating with investigators and that the doctor will be cleared of
any wrongdoing.</p>
<h3>Mounting Allegations</h3>
<p>The widespread attention on the women at Irwin has amplified calls
for better medical care in immigration detention, where there has been a<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/30/us/ice-deaths-detention-2020/index.html"> dramatic increase in deaths </a>over
the past year. Advocates for immigration detainees have long complained
of dangerously poor medical care in the sprawling patchwork of often
privately run detention facilities.</p>
<p>Initial reports estimated that 20 or more women detained in Irwin had
undergone full or partial hysterectomies in the last six years. Amin
and his attorney dispute the claims. New information collected by
attorneys and advocates who spoke with The Intercept — and who presented
their findings to the Senate, including the written materials, which
The Intercept reviewed — points to a broader pattern of women being
pressured to undergo potentially unnecessary procedures.</p>
<p>Overall, the attorneys counted 57 confirmed patients of Amin, 17 of
whom remain at Irwin as of October 25. (The Intercept was able to speak
with attorneys who represented at least 52 of those women.) None of them
have received any follow-up gynecological care since ICE stopped
sending patients to Amin five weeks ago.</p></div><div><p>“The
recent allegations by the independent contracted employee raise some
very serious concerns that deserve to be investigated quickly and
thoroughly,” said Tony Pham, ICE’s acting director, in a statement to
The Intercept. Pham said ICE welcomes efforts of both the Department of
Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency, as well as the department’s
Office of Inspector General to investigate. The statement concluded, “If
there is any truth to these allegations, it is my commitment to make
the corrections necessary to ensure we continue to prioritize the
health, welfare and safety of ICE detainees.”</p>
<p>The Senate briefing comes on the heels of an <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/481646674/Executive-Summary-of-Medical-Abuse-Findings-About-Irwin-Detention-Center">independent medical review</a>
led by the ALLGOOD Foundation. The review, which was first reported in
the LA Times article, was conducted by nine board-certified OB-GYNs and
two nursing experts who reviewed over 3,200 pages of medical records for
19 of the women who had alleged medical misconduct by Amin. The team,
according to their report, found “a disturbing pattern of aggressive
treatment, including ‘overcalling’ the need for invasive surgeries,
unwarranted pressure to undergo surgery, and a failure to obtain
informed consent.”</p>
<h3>“Not Something You Can Go Back From”</h3>
<p>Over the past five weeks, since the whistleblower complaint emerged, a
steady stream of women who visited with Amin have shared their stories
with the press. One, Jamileth, whose name has been changed for fear of
retaliation, told The Intercept that Amin did procedures on her without
getting her permission. In May, amid a nine-month stint at Irwin, she
began experiencing stomach pain and irregular periods. The ICE detention
center sent her to Amin.</p></div><blockquote><span></span><p>“He treated me in a very — well, in a very rough way.”</p></blockquote><div><p>“He
did a vaginal ultrasound, but he didn’t ask me if I wanted one or not.
He just did it,” Jamileth told The Intercept in Spanish. “I don’t know,
he treated me in a very — well, in a very rough way.”</p>
<p>According to Jamileth, Amin said she had an ovarian cyst. She said he
asked if he could give her an injection — Jamileth does not know for
what — and then suggested surgery to remove the cyst. Jamileth refused
both the injection and the operation, saying she needed to consult with
her family first. In the end, she refused to see Amin again.</p>
<p>“I didn’t want to return, because I had seen other examples,”
Jamileth said, explaining that she had seen other women in detention
after visits with Amin. She described, in one instance, seeing a woman
return from surgery: “She was bleeding through the wound, she was
purple, black in her stomach, and it looked really bad.”</p>
<p>Several women told their attorneys they were prescribed
Depo-Provera, a hormonal birth control shot with sometimes serious side
effects, without their consent. One woman, after her operation and shot
of Depo-Provera, was “still unclear what exactly happened to her body,”
according to the briefing materials provided to Senate Democrats. There
were a number of cases that resulted in lasting confusion. One woman was
deported to El Salvador and thinks that she had a hysterectomy but
remains unsure, according to the materials provided to senators.</p>
<p>Another woman went to Amin for pain she suspected resulted from
having fibroid cysts removed from her uterus before her time in
detention, according to the Senate briefing. Amin administered three
shots to her, explaining they were “for the pain,” according to her
recollection in the briefing. Only after she was returned to Irwin did
she learn from a nurse there that she had been given Depo-Provera.</p>
<p>When the woman asked about the shots at a follow-up appointment, Amin
got defensive. “I’m trying to help you,” he said, according to the
testimony in the briefing. He later pressured her into submitting to a
hysterectomy, the testimony said, telling the detainee, “You’re an old
woman, why would you want to have more babies?” She refused the surgery.</p>
<p>Yet another woman said she felt lucky when she was diagnosed with
Covid-19 — the detention center failed to take basic precautionary
measures, refused to test symptomatic detainees, and underreported cases
of Covid-19, according to the <a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/09/14/ice-detention-center-nurse-whistleblower/">earlier whistleblower report</a>
— and her hysterectomy was delayed. ”I felt like I didn’t have control
over my life,” she said. She eventually refused the surgery and was
deported.</p></div><p><a href="https://theintercept.com/collections/the-war-on-immigrants/"><span><span><img alt="The War on Immigrants" src="https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2018/06/guatemalan-immigrant-cpb-feat-1530033149-promo.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&q=90&fit=crop&w=440&h=220" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="440" height="220"></span></span><span><span>Read Our Complete Coverage</span><span>The War on Immigrants</span></span></a></p><div><p>The
medical review of pathology reports conducted by ALLGOOD showed “a
pattern of overly aggressive care,” including “inappropriate,
unconsented transvaginal procedures,” “exaggerated interpretations of
imaging results,” and less invasive methods not being pursued.</p>
<p>Attorney Benjamin Osorio, who represents two of the women tallied in
the Senate briefing, said in an interview with The Intercept that one of
his clients was told a hysterectomy was the only possible option to
remove a possibly cancerous cyst. “There are less invasive, less
aggressive treatments, but he took out her whole reproductive system,”
Osorio explained “That’s not something you can go back from.”</p>
<p>The Intercept spoke to Yuridia, who was deported three days after
undergoing an operation she said she did not comprehend and did not
consent to. She was dumped into Mexico not knowing what happened to her,
still bleeding, wondering if she still had a uterus, her attorney
Kathleen Hoyos told The Intercept. It was a month before Yuridia, who
asked to be identified by her first name because of an ongoing
immigration case, was able to see a gynecologist in Mexico and learn
what had happened to her. (She had been given a shot of a hormonal
contraceptive and underwent a dilation and curettage to remove a cyst.)
Hoyos said, “All she knew was what happened to her was wrong.”</p>
<h3>Deportations Concern Congress</h3>
<p>Since the initial whistleblower report was submitted in September,
ICE has deported at least five women who were seen by Amin. At least two
more women may be deported this week, according to the Senate briefing.
“ICE, LaSalle, and DHS are ensuring fewer witnesses are able to
participate in the pending federal investigation,” the Senate briefing
materials say.</p></div><blockquote><span></span><p>“We
need a full accounting of what has been done to the women at Irwin, so
we can hold perpetrators of any horrific actions accountable.”</p></blockquote><div><p>Members
of Congress are taking note. “Advocates have shared with my team that
many of the women who questioned Dr. Amin’s advice were quickly
deported, and that many others at the facility are now fearful of
seeking medical care at all,” Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said in a
statement to The Intercept. “We need a full accounting of what has been
done to the women at Irwin, so we can hold perpetrators of any horrific
actions accountable, and give the American people the answers they
deserve.”</p>
<p>Last Friday, eight members of Congress, including Reps. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.; and
Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., sent <a href="https://tlaib.house.gov/sites/tlaib.house.gov/files/Final%20Final%20%20-%20Letter%20to%20OHCHR%20on%20DHS%20Human%20Rights%20Abuses.pdf">a letter </a>to
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet
outlining concerns about gynecological procedures on women in Irwin.
They requested that Bachelet lead an investigation into the procedures
conducted on immigrant women.</p>
<p>“These allegations illustrate a clear pattern of alleged human rights
violations by DHS,” the letter says. “This pattern of behavior is
perpetuated and encouraged by the consistent and unforgivable failure of
the United States government and its institutions to take these
allegations seriously by investigating them in a transparent, thorough,
and impartial manner.”</p>
<p>Last week, Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., also sent a <a href="https://espaillat.house.gov/sites/espaillat.house.gov/files/Congressmembers%20Espaillat%2C%20Johnson%2C%20and%20Ocasio-Cortez%20Letter%20--%20to%20ICE%20Acting%20Director%20Pham%20%28Re%20Irwin%20County%20Detention%20Center%29.pdf">letter to ICE</a>, along with Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., demanding that Irwin be shut down.</p>
<p>One detained woman quoted in Monday’s Senate briefing materials also
called for Irwin to be shut down, adding, “We could die locked up in
here.”</p></div></div></div></div>
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