A federal watchdog will investigate whistleblower complaints made by a nurse formerly employed at a Georgia immigration detention facility “who alleged detainees had improperly received hysterectomies and other gynecological procedures,” Mimi Dwyer and Mica Rosenberg report for Reuters. While LaSalle Corrections, the private contractor that runs the Irwin County Detention Center, has denied the allegations, “attorneys representing detainees at Irwin told Reuters several women had complained about gynecological treatment by an outside provider to the facility.”

The whistleblower, Dawn Wooten, also said the facility deliberately underreported COVID-19 cases within the facility. Yesterday, the Forum called for a thorough investigation into the allegations. My statement: “These allegations raise major questions about the government’s ability to keep detainees and staff – and by extension, the communities where these facilities are located – safe. Perhaps even more troublingly, they raise major questions about the willingness to protect basic human dignity.”

Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick further unpacks the story, delving into our nation’s “long, troubling history of mandatory forced sterilizations.” Lithwick writes that these recent allegations of mistreatment and abuse, “while not yet fully investigated or corroborated, are horrific, and they are most certainly not without ample precedent.”

Welcome to Wednesday’s edition of Noorani’s Notes. We’ll be paying special attention over the next few weeks to how immigration is impacting the election, particularly in swing states. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected].

WITNESS DEPORTED – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported a key witness in an investigation of sexual assault and harassment at a detention center in El Paso, Texas, Lomi Kriel reports for The Texas Tribune and ProPublica. The woman “told lawyers about a ‘pattern and practice’ of abuse [at the facility], including that guards systematically assaulted her and other detainees in areas that were not visible to security cameras. … At least two more women have since come forward with similar allegations of assault.” The deportation comes just days after the woman’s lawyers filed a habeas petition to move her out of ICE custody amid intimidating threats from guards.

GREECE – Last week, fires ripped through Europe’s largest refugee camp to displace (again) some 12,000 asylum seekers from their temporary homes in Lesbos, Greece. This week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has agreed to “allow 1,553 people from 408 families who have already been recognized as refugees by Greece to settle in Germany,” Melissa Eddy reports for The New York Times. Pressure is likely to increase on other wealthy European countries to assist.

ARIZONA – Meanwhile, 82,982 refugees live and work in Arizona, making up less than 1% of the state’s population. But, as Sarandon Raboin reports for Cronkite News, “the International Rescue Committee [IRC], Iranian American Society of Arizona, and the Refugees and Immigrant Communities for Empowerment, or RICE, have stepped in to help bring crucial information and resources to refugee families in need,” many of whom work in industries hardest hit by the pandemic. “The clients that we have are resilient. They’ve survived tremendous struggles in their own life prior to arriving in the United States,” said Stanford Prescott, community engagement coordinator for the IRC. “And so while we’re helping them overcome all of these barriers and challenges, there’s a lot of character and courage on the behalf of the refugees we serve.”

GETTING THE JOB DONE – Immigrants are enriching communities across the country, one neighborhood at a time. Here’s a few examples from around the country:
• In Nashville, Mohamed-Shukri Hassan, who migrated from Somalia as a child, was named director of the city’s Office of New Americans by Mayor John Cooper after a “decade of service to other immigrants and refugees in the city,” Stephen Elliott reports for the Nashville Scene. Of his new role, Hassan said: “We are a city made of neighbors. I’m honored to be serving the city I love and the community I love.”
• Meanwhile in Phoenix, 24-year-old DACA recipient Miriam Robles is registering new voters and making an urgent case to apathetic voters in the run-up to the general election, NPR’s Barbara Sprunt writes.
• And Conchita Hernández Legorreta, a disability rights activist and co-founder of the National Coalition of Latinx with Disabilities, wrote a moving piece for Refinery29 about how her experiences growing up as a blind immigrant Latina without access to vital information and support systems led her to educate and advocate for disabled BIPOC immigrants.

“WE WILL INVEST IN AMERICA” – In an op-ed for the Louisville Courier-Journal, Byishimo Rugazura, a Congolese refugee and university student currently working as a supervisor at an Amazon distribution facility in Louisville, Kentucky, calls on voters to protect and embrace immigrants in November as they continue to make extraordinary sacrifices during the pandemic as essential workers.“[W]e are vital to helping give at-risk Americans, stressed-out parents and millions of others in quarantine the goods they need without hassle or fear,” he writes. “But with the election approaching, the future of immigrants like me — and our economic contributions — is on the line.” He concludes: “Invest in us, and we will invest in America.”

Thanks for reading,

Ali