WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday called for an immediate investigation into alleged medical malpractice on migrant detainees, including refusal to get them tested for COVID-19 and a high rate of hysterectomies done to immigrant women.
Those allegations were made by four human rights advocacy groups in a whistleblower compliant filed to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials on Monday, accusing the Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC) in the state of Georgia of "lack of medical care, unsafe work practices, and absence of adequate protection against COVID-19 for detained immigrants and employees alike."
"If true, the appalling conditions described in the whistleblower complaint -- including allegations of mass hysterectomies being performed on vulnerable immigrant women -- are a staggering abuse of human rights," Pelosi said in a statement.
The California Democrat called on the DHS inspector general, Joseph Cuffari, to "immediately investigate" the allegations detailed in the complaint. She said Congress and the American public "need to know why and under what conditions so many women, reportedly without their informed consent, were pushed to undergo this extremely invasive and life-altering procedure."
The 27-page whistleblower complaint was based on information provided by unnamed detainees and Dawn Wooten, an ICDC nurse who the complaint said is a protected whistleblower.
The complaint and an accompanying declaration by Wooten "document recent accounts of jarring medical neglect at ICDC including refusal to test detained immigrants for COVID-19 who have been exposed to the virus and are symptomatic, shredding of medical requests submitted by detained immigrants, and fabricating medical records," read the compliant. "In addition, this complaint raises red flags regarding the rate at which hysterectomies are performed on immigrant women under ICE custody at ICDC."
Pelosi also requested answers regarding "ICE's egregious handling of the coronavirus pandemic."
"Reports such as these point to the urgent need to overhaul our unaccountable detention system and its horrific misuse by the Trump Administration, to ensure that these abuses cannot ever again happen," she said in the statement.
ICE released a statement Monday, claiming that the agency is "firmly committed to the safety and welfare of all those in its custody."
"Since the onset of reports of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), ICE epidemiologists have been tracking the outbreak, regularly updating infection prevention and control protocols, and issuing guidance to ICE Health Service Corps (IHSC) staff for the screening and management of potential exposure among detainees," ICE said in a statement cited by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Enditem
