Report: U.S. Is Deporting Women Who Alleged Surgical Abuse At Georgia Detention Center
This article features our client Dawn Wooten and was originally published here.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has moved to deport at least a dozen women behind abuse allegations against a gynecologist at one of the agency’s Georgia facilities—the subject of a September whistleblower complaint that shocked the nation with so far unverified claims of mass hysterectomies—according to a Wednesday Associated Press report.
KEY FACTS
Per the report, the Trump administration has already deported six women who levied complaints against Dr. Mahendra Amin, a gynecologist servicing the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia, who some of his female patients have said performed non-consensual or medically unnecessary surgeries which may have impacted their ability to have children.
At least seven other women who filed allegations against Amin have been alerted that they will soon be deported.
One of Amin’s former patients, the AP notes, was told hours after speaking to federal investigators about the whistleblower complaint that ICE had lifted a hold on her deportation and removal from the country would be “imminent.”
Though ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not immediately respond to Forbes’ questions, ICE did tell the AP that it notified the Homeland Security’s inspector general—who, along with the Department of Justice, is investigating the complaints—“about any planned transfers or removals of Irwin detainees who were former patients of Dr. Amin.”
Earlier in the week, ICE said it would accommodate interviews but detained migrants “remain subject to final order of removal” once all appeals have been exhausted.
CRUCIAL QUOTE
“Any implication that ICE is attempting to impede the investigation by conducting removals of those being interviewed is completely false,” said the agency’s statement to the AP.
KEY BACKGROUND
The whistleblower complaint, filed in September by several legal advocacy groups on behalf of former Irwin nurse Dawn Wooten and several detainees, detailed chilling allegations against Amin, including his reputation as a “uterus collector” in reference to claims he performed mass hysterectomies. The complaints that women did not know what procedures they were undergoing due to language barriers or poor explanations—reminiscent of government-sanctioned sterilization programs targeting minority populations in the 20th century—sparked widespread outrage from top government officials who called for DOJ and DHS investigations. Media investigations have so far unearthed no concrete evidence to support mass hysterectomy claims, with Priyanka Bhatt, a staff attorney with Project South, one of the groups that filed the complaint, telling The Washington Post that she had not spoken to any woman who had a hysterectomy and included those specific allegations to spark an investigation into their validity. However, the AP has spoken to detainees and reviewed medical records which support claims of unnecessarily invasive procedures and a lack of communication to patients about what was being done. Amin’s lawyer, Scott Grubman, has denied any wrongdoing, calling his client a “highly respected physician who has dedicated his adult life to treating a high-risk, underserved population in rural Georgia.” Amin is no longer working with women at Irwin.