More migrant women join the demand for gynecological abuses in a detention center-CVBJ

This article features Government Accountability Project and our client Dawn Wooten and was originally published here.

Nail 40 immigrant women in a Georgia detention center have filed a class action lawsuit in which they claim they suffered medical abuse when subjected to Unnecessary surgical procedures without your consent.

The legal action, filed late Monday in federal court in Georgia, includes the testimonies of more than 40 immigrants and that allude to the “neglect, abuse and retaliation” they experienced while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody at the Irwin Detention Center.

The women presented sworn testimony in court, “despite the ICE’s constant attempts to silence them, revealing a relentless pattern of non-consensual medical procedures, including unwanted gynecological surgeries and other non-consensual medical interventions, ”according to the organizations representing the plaintiffs.

The 160-page document names as defendants, among others, Tony Pham, Acting Director of ICE; Chad F. Wolf, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security; William Barr, Attorney General, and Mahendra Amin, the gynecologist who treated immigrant women at Irwin prison, in the remote town of Ocilla, in southern Georgia.

“We seek the immediate end to heinous reprisals against women who spoke out against abuse, the liberation of women who have suffered medical abuse and compensation for the damages suffered by the survivors, “Azadeh Shahshahani, Project South legal director and co-counsel in the lawsuit, told ..

Project South, Government Accountability Project and other organizations uncovered the scandal inside that center for undocumented immigrants in a legal complaint filed in September passed before the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The complaint was based primarily on the Dawn Wooten’s testimony, a nurse who worked in the jail, operated by the LaSalle Corrections corporation, who alerted about the “High number” of undocumented women undergoing hysterectomies, a surgery to remove the uterus.

Activists on Tuesday urged the Administration of President-elect, Democrat Joe Biden, and Congress “To correct the errors” of the immigration agenda of the outgoing president Donald Trump and close the said detention center, as well as investigate “all ICE officers and contractors who turned a blind eye to the abuse that women suffered under their supervision.”

“It is time for this facility plagued by human rights violations and that ICE and LaSalle are held accountable, ”Shahshahani told Efe.

Among the testimonies included in the lawsuit is that of Yanira Yesenia Oldaker, a 36-year-old Mexican mother who came to the United States when she was only three and who claims to have been Amin’s victim in February of this year, when she underwent a gynecological procedure. unnecessary and without your consent.

“As a survivor of extreme sexual violence, Ms. Oldaker describes the pain as rape again,” the lawsuit states.

The Mexican, like Luz Adriana Walker, a 54-year-old Colombian, and Lourdes Terrazas Silas, a 41-year-old Bolivian, are still in downtown Irwin along with at least six other immigrants who also reported the gynecologist.

He Amin’s attorney, Scott Grubman, has dismissed all charges against his client, about whom he assures is “a highly respected physician who has dedicated himself to treating a high-risk and underserved population in rural Georgia.”

Organizations that defend immigrant women filed a lawsuit last month after they ICE will deport some of the undocumented women who denounced the gynecologist, despite the fact that Congress and the Department of Homeland Security are investigating the allegations.

The legal recourse managed to halt the deportations of several other complainants at the last minute after the government agreed to suspend their expulsion until at least mid-January.

Between the organizations representing women are also the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild (NIPNLG); the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, Columbia University School of Law; the Community Health Law Partnership Clinic and First Amendment Clinic, University of Georgia, and the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program.

The Immigrant Rights Clinic of Texas A&M also participates in its defense; the Immigrants’ Rights and Human Trafficking Program, Boston University School of Law; the Dreyer Sterling LLC law firm; Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights; Georgia Detention Watch, and the South Georgia Immigrant Support Network.