The Tahirih Justice Center is outraged and horrified at the atrocious abuses being committed in ICE detention, specifically targeting the health and safety of immigrant women.
On September 14, 2020, Project South, Georgia Detention Watch, Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, and South Georgia Immigrant Support Network filed a complaint on behalf of detained immigrants at the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia. The complaint quotes a nurse, Dawn Wooten, who exposed egregious acts of medical abuse and neglect, including allegations of hysterectomies performed without the consent of women being detained by ICE.
“While these new accusations of medical abuse are horrifying, they are not entirely surprising; this is not the first time a whistleblower has exposed horrendous mistreatment in immigration jails, and it won’t be the last. There have been many prior documented abuses by ICE officials or their contracted staff, including cruel and demeaning behavior, rape, assault, forced labor, medical neglect, and much more. Immigration detention is unnecessary, unjust, and inhumane, and is part of an immigration system that is built on White supremacy and racism. Taken in this context, the reproductive coercion taking place in Irwin is beyond unconscionable and must stop,” said Tahirih Chief of Policy and Communications, Archi Pyati.
Immigration detention centers function as mass incarceration sites and have been mentally and physically harmful to the health of individual detainees for decades. It is impossible to maintain the human rights and dignity of people who are detained.
We continue to stand with the immigrants who come to the U.S. seeking safety and to escape violence only to face further trauma, uncertainty, and injustice.
