As if tensions and divides weren’t already at an all-time high in the United States, reports have surfaced mid-last week, Sept. 15, detailing even more questionable ongoings involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE. This time, in regards to high numbers of unwarranted hysterectomies performed on women in the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia. 

These reports are surfacing following a whistleblower complaint by Dawn Wooten, a nurse at the facility where these grossly questionable acts are being performed. Wooten stated in her complaint, “I’ve had several inmates tell me that they have been to see the doctor, and they’ve had hysterectomies, and they don’t know why they went, or why they’re going.” Yet the most jarring part seems to be that allegations against the Irwin County Detention Center, ICDC,  have been going on for years, and the allegations go beyond just hysterectomies without consent. 

Priyanka Bhatt, staff attorney for Project South, stated that, “Ms. Wooten’s whistleblowing disclosures confirm what detained immigrants have been reporting for years: gross disregard for health and safety standards, lack of medical care, and unsanitary living conditions,” as stated in NPR’s recent article detailing the ICE hysterectomies.  

These despicable acts are a complete violation of human rights and a complete disregard for a woman’s autonomy over her own body. 

How this detention center has managed to get away with not only years of maltreatment, unsanitary conditions, and now this added as well, is far beyond the scope of understanding. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has called for a detailed investigation of the Georgia facility. Pelosi voiced her concerns stating, “Allegations of mass hysterectomies being performed on immigrant women are a staggering abuse of human rights.” 

In an article for The Intercept, John Washington and Jose Olivares write that the individuals who were stated by name in Wooten’s complaint are at risk of losing their license. Seeing as the representative for the state of Georgia, Bob Trammell, has written to both the Georgia Board of Nursing and the Georgia Composite Medical Board urging for immediate action to be taken against the doctors in question. 

As it comes to no surprise to many, ICE refutes the allegations stating that the ICDC is up to standards and has been checked on multiple occasions. In a statement issued for The Intercept, representatives at ICE asserted that, “anonymous, unproven allegations, made without any fact-checkable specifics, should be treated with the appropriate skepticism they deserve.”

ICE has long been the center of attention for many abnormalities within itself and has seemed to get away with it. This should not be accepted in any capacity. The human lives they are responsible for in their detainment facilities have faced horrendous conditions daily, and it is time for them to speak for their actions. 

If this were to happen in any other capacity and regarding any woman who was not a person of color, there would be an immediate change. The same fierce action and rapid change should be demanded for the lives and health of these immigrant women.