Forced Hysterectomies Underscore Horrors of Immigrant Detention

For years, advocates, attorneys, and impacted individuals have detailed horrific conditions at ICE detention facilities across the country. These include reports of abuse, negligence, violence, and racism and have raised serious questions about the punitive nature of immigration detention. Last month, a shocking whistleblower report by a nurse working in a private ICE detention center stated that ICE was involved in forced hysterectomies against women at these facilities. The report has renewed national interest and scrutiny not only on ICE detention conditions but also on policies and practices that many view as rooted in racism and genocide.   

This was part of a broader report on inhumane detention conditions inside an ICE facility during the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially covered by The Intercept, the report focused largely on complaints brought forth by Dawn Wooten, a nurse employed at the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia, run by the private corporation LaSalle Corrections. The report states that the private operator underreported COVID-19 cases, exposed detainees and staff to the virus, and failed to exercise proper care with respect to medical care and conditions inside the facility. 

In addition to the charges of medical neglect, Wooten was also involved in a formal complaint filed with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General by the advocacy group Project South, which alleges that hysterectomies had been performed on five women detained in the facility without “proper informed consent.” 

“Everybody he sees has a hysterectomy — just about everybody,” Wooten says in the complaint. “I’ve had several inmates tell me that they’ve been to see the doctor, and they’ve had hysterectomies, and they don’t know why they went or why they’re going.”

After the press picked up the report, the AP published a follow-up story with additional women coming forward to document unwanted medical procedures by Dr. Mahendra Amin, the gynecologist alleged to have been involved in the forced hysterectomies against detained women. The report noted that a review of medical records indicated that despite evidence that some of the procedures may have been justifiable, the lack of consent or knowledge by the detained women presented serious legal and ethical issues.

Andrew Free, a civil rights attorney involved in investigating the claims, told the AP, “The indication is there’s a systemic lack of truly informed and legally valid consent to perform procedures that could ultimately result – intentionally or unintentionally – in sterilization.” 

The complaints against ICE and the LaSalle Corporation are now the subject of congressional inquiries. 

Private Negligence and Public Harm 

The claims arising out of the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia are not only indicative of the dismal conditions immigrants face in ICE detention but also underscore the problematic nature of private detention operators and the facilities they run. According to some estimates, as much as 70% of immigrants nationwide are detained in facilities operated by private for-profit corporations. Private prison stocks rose 100% when Trump was elected, and many advocates have argued that these corporations influence policies that lead to the expansion of detention and prisons. 

These corporations are often incentivized to cut costs and endanger the health and safety of immigrants in order to maximize their profits. The use of these for-profit entities as quasi-extensions of the federal government is at the heart of the failures of accountability and oversight typical of ICE detention. These operators are allowed to function as extensions of the government in detention while avoiding the oversight and transparency requirements associated with governmental agencies.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the longstanding failures related to medical care and safety in for-profit detention facilities. Numerous widespread outbreaks of COVID-19 have taken place in for-profit facilities, with courts and judges noting that private operators have routinely flouted proper protocols to protect health and safety, leaving both detainees and even their own employees at serious risk. 

The lack of transparency and accountability in these facilities has unfortunately created a perfect storm for horrific acts of medical misconduct and negligence, including the reported forced hysterectomies and rampant COVID-19 outbreaks. 

Genocide

The reports of forced sterilization against immigrant women not only elicited shock, condemnation, and immediate calls for an investigation but have drawn comparisons to the systematic sterilization of other vulnerable groups, with some arguing that the practice meets international definitions of genocide. 

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The forced medical procedures allegedly perpetrated against immigrant women cannot and should not be viewed as isolated incidents or acts of negligence by an individual doctor or detention operator. Instead, the reports should be situated within the broader framework of immigration policies that criminalize, terrorize, and dehumanize immigrants and people of color in this country.

The Trump administration’s open hostility towards immigrants and reluctance to distance itself from ideas connected with white supremacy now provide a clear nexus between immigration policies and ideas once relegated to the past, such as the forced sterilization of ethnic minorities in order to maintain ideas related to social purity and power. 

Historians have detailed the forced sterilization of more than 20,000 men and women in  California and discussed the parallels between the practice and policies related to immigration and segregation in the United States. Policies that were motivated by and reinforced white supremacy and genocide in this country. 

The reports of forced sterilization, when viewed alongside current immigration policies including the separation of immigrant children from their families, the use of ICE raids to invoke fear, and the systematic attempt to deprive immigrant families of benefits and social support, indicate a concerted effort to destroy immigrant communities and particularly those of color. 

As advocates continue to challenge the various injustices perpetrated by the immigration system in the United States, the reports of forced sterilization are further proof that the current detention system in this country is ripe for abolition.