Providing for Consideration of H. Res. Condemning Unwanted, Unnecessary Medical Procedures on Individuals Without Their Full, Informed Consent, and Providing for Consideration of H. Res. Condemning Qanon and Rejecting the Conspiracy Theories It Promotes

Floor Speech

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Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Madam Speaker, it is not a surprise why we are here. To the gentlewoman from Arizona, it is not a surprise. They have nothing else to put on the floor except political statements a month before an election and to further an agenda that they don't like with ICE and the immigration process, which we have heard now in the Committee on the Judiciary for well over 2 years. Again, there are no actionable items that actually can fix them but a lot of talk.

So let's continue with this just amazing reason we are here on the floor. Because the majority has embraced this absurd and baseless accusation that employees and doctors at the Irwin County Detention Facility in my State of Georgia are engaged in a conspiracy--this is amazing--with local doctors to systematically sterilize illegal aliens.

They have proven to the American people that no story is too outlandish to use in furtherance of their radical agenda.

It would be a completely different situation if we were standing here today to take action on substantiated claims of mistreatment, but we are not.

We are here today so that the majority can attempt to squeeze one last bit of value out of the false claims propagated by Project South's complaint about the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia. The left knows these complaints are not true, but they are hoping we will ignore the mountain of evidence contradicting them--Madam Speaker, I have news for them--we are not.

If claims of mass hysterectomies were true, or even if they were substantiated by the smallest amount of evidence, then there would be swift action. But to the contrary--and to the dismay of my Democrat colleagues--the claims of mass hysterectomies were quickly proven false mere days after the complaint was released. In fact, as Mr. Scott said, just days later, both the hospital and the detention center confirmed only two such hysterectomies were performed since 2017.

Madam Speaker, that didn't stop the whistleblower. That didn't stop Project South. That didn't stop us from bringing this show to the floor of the House.

In fact, in the complaint Ms. Wooten called the doctor at the center a uterus collector. Where does he go to get his reputation back from somebody who in a group who makes basic claims?

I need to remind Project South; they don't have speech and debate privileges like we do. They ought to be careful about who they are slandering and how they are doing it.

Ms. Wooten said she has spoken out about several inmates who have had hysterectomies. Even more sensationalized, Ms. Wooten stated that: Everybody he sees has a hysterectomy--just about everybody. This is what she is saying about the doctor.

Project South alleges that a detainee at the facility had talked to five different women detained between October and December 2019 who had hysterectomies done. But both the detention facility and the local hospital have clear evidence directly contradicting this hearsay: records showing that only two detainees have had hysterectomies since 2017. Let that sink in: Only two since 2017.

How can they claim mass hysterectomies performed by the uterus collector are true? The simple answer is they are not.

In fact, Project South's attorneys and lead investigator admitted to The Washington Post that she had not even spoken to or identified a detainee claiming to have undergone a hysterectomy. The group providing these claims has no evidence to back them up, but nonetheless, we are here embracing them and continuing to perpetrate a falsehood. Sounds like a little bit of another resolution that we are dealing with here today.

As the facts have come out to disprove these absurd claims, did the Democrats acknowledge they were wrong? No. There has been no acknowledgment of their wrong. They conveniently shifted their argument to uninformed consent and expanded the allegation to medical procedures generally and the lack of adequate translation services to strengthen their faulty arguments. But even those failed.

According to the employees at the facility, the center has 24-hour access to interpreters for virtually every language, which they consistently utilize. In fact, they even have several remote interpreters who specialize in relaying medical terms and advice to non-English speakers.

Clearly, the majority does not care about the credibility of their witnesses and their whistleblowers. They want the publicity. They want the political aspect of this because we are coming to the real reason. As long as they espouse these claims, it allows them to continue their attack on two places: The President and law enforcement. We have seen this during the sham impeachment, and we are seeing it here again today.

The Democrats have already expended a lot of time and effort trying to make the claim in this complaint true by writing letters to DHS IG and traveling to Ocilla. In fact, just 2 days after the release of Project South's complaint, 173 Democrats wrote DHS IG urging an investigation centering their call almost entirely on Ms. Wooten's debunked claims of mass hysterectomies.

Madam Speaker, now that is a mass progression to something--173 on a debunked complaint that has already been done. They have conveniently failed to update the DHS IG and the American public that their claims of a eugenics conspiracy in south Georgia have been proven false.

They have also conveniently failed to mention that, according to its website, Project South is committed to ending the use of local police to enforce what they characterize as the Federal Government's draconian and racist immigration policies. Further, the group boasts a goal of shutting down immigration centers and is a frequent user of the hashtag, #abolishICE.

To set the record straight, Representative Austin Scott and I wrote a letter to the DHS IG to shed light on the developments that followed Project South's complaint and the group's anti-law enforcement, anti- Trump agenda.

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Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Madam Speaker, in the quest of their further radical agenda, the left has cast a shadow over an entire town in Georgia.

This is more than just political fodder here for this floor when the majority has nothing else to put on this floor and is wasting the American people's time here. This goes back to disparaging a respected doctor in the community, an Indian-American immigrant, who provides free medical services to low-income patients simply for political gain. The doctor has been viciously slandered by the left's accusation that he carried out mass hysterectomies.

Frankly, he should sue these organizations.

It is truly sad to see the lengths that the majority is willing to go to advance their own misguided policies, and they should apologize to the doctor and to the center.

It is clear to me that Project South has ulterior motives, and it is dangerous that the majority is permitting the group's complaint to serve as the foundation of a resolution when so many of the claims have already failed under scrutiny, and the credibility of the entire complaint is shattered by Project South's anti-ICE motives.

Despite Democrats' wishes, the American people deserve to know the truth, and they deserve to see the motives behind the claim. An investigation is always there; an investigation can start. But it is pretty amazing that the investigation--173 of my majority colleagues rushed to sign a letter without even knowing the facts, and especially because it has salacious details that they could get at ICE and to get at a system that they don't like, actually protecting the American public, enforcing our immigration laws.

Project South is an anti-law enforcement organization that has a stated mission of shutting down detention facilities. They included patently false claims in a complaint to the DHS IG.

Detention facilities like the Irwin County Detention Center serve an important purpose in upholding our Nation's immigration laws, and efforts like this one to disparage them and shut them down by choosing to ignore facts in favor of fiction is disgraceful, not even meeting with the hospital administrator.

Again, what are we here for? This is shown to be exactly what it is. This train is on the tracks. We are putting this up here for political purposes because, frankly, Madam Speaker, the majority has nothing else to put up, so let's get a last couple of days in to throw at our favorite targets: ICE and this administration. And who cares who we hurt, a hospital, a community, and a doctor who simply was doing his job.

This is an investigation that needs to happen, and the smear needs to stop now.

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