Letter to Joesph Cuffari, Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security - 173 Members of Congress Urge Immediate Investigation Into Startling Whistleblower Allegations Regarding High Rates of Hysterectomies Being Performed on Immigrant Women at ICE Detention Facility

Letter

Dear Mr. Cuffari:
We write to express deep concern for the health and welfare of immigrants in the custody
of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who are currently detained at the Irwin County
Detention Center (ICDC), operated by LaSalle Corrections. We are horrified to see reports of
mass hysterectomies performed on detained women in the facility, without their full, informed
consent and request that the Office of Inspector General (OIG) conduct an immediate
investigation.1 We request that your office immediately open an investigation to thoroughly
examine allegations raised by whistleblower Dawn Wooten and immigrants currently and
formerly detained in the ICDC.2
In the complaint submitted to your office outlining the concerns by Ms. Wooten and
numerous immigrants who have spoken to Project South, there is wide concern about the high
rates of hysterectomies performed on detained women. One detained immigrant reported that she
knew five women who had hysterectomies within a three-month period between October and
December, 2019. This woman likened the facility to an "experimental concentration camp" and
Nurse Wooten said that hysterectomies were that doctor's "specialty, he's the uterus collector."
While Ms. Wooten noted that some of the women who had hysterectomies reported heavy
menstruation or other severe issues, the high rates of hysterectomies were seemingly inexplicable
and remarkably concerning.
The complaint also raised questions as to whether there was proper, informed consent by
many of the women who had hysterectomies. Ms. Wooten claims that several of the women who
had hysterectomies did not know why they even went to the doctor. Further, she reports that the
language line was not consistently used by medical staff and some nurses attempted to
communicate with the Spanish-speaking detained women using Google or asking other detained
immigrants to interpret. One immigrant woman explained her experience receiving three different explanations as to why she was going to have a hysterectomy, and said that she "felt
like they were trying to mess with my body." She reports that a nurse became angry and yelled at
her for expressing that she thought the procedure was not appropriate for her.
These reports hearken back to a dark time in U.S. history in which 32 states passed
eugenic-sterilization laws, resulting in the sterilization of between 60 and 70 thousand people in
the early 1900s.3 This practice continued for incarcerated individuals into recent times, as nearly
150 incarcerated women in California prisons were sterilized between 2006 and 2010.4
In
Georgia alone, 3,284 individuals had been sterilized by the end of 1963, as the state was
responsible for the fifth highest number of sterilizations in the country.5 This shameful history of
sterilization in the United States, in particular sterilization of people of color and incarcerated
people, must never be repeated. Yet, the similarities to the accounts of immigrant women and
nurses in the Irwin County Detention Center today are eerily similar.
The reports of mass hysterectomies cause grave concern for the violation of the bodily
autonomy and reproductive rights of detained people. Everyone, regardless of their immigration
status, their language, or their incarceration deserves to control their own reproductive choices,
and make informed choices about their bodies. We request an immediate investigation into these
reports. We request a response and a briefing on the status of this investigation by Friday,
September 25, 2020

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