Black and brown people are being forced into sterilizations, enough is enough

 

Black and brown people at Irwin Detention are being forced to undergo sterilization. 

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This is horrific and it must end. Sign the petition to demand Gov. Brian Kemp close Irwin Detention Center for good. 
  

Sign the petition

Dear John, 

Medical doctors at Irwin Detention Center in Georgia have been performing hysterectomies without the consent of their patients.1 This appalling news was brought to light by Dawn Wooten, a Black nurse, which has shocked the entire country and world for the past three days.2 

It is unconscionable that ICE officials are performing medically unnecessary procedures that take a minimum of 6 WEEKS for recovery in the middle of a global pandemic. Making matters worse, Wooten also reported that ICE officials were inadequately testing detainees for COVID-19 and failing to meet CDC guidelines. 3 Forty-three detainees have tested positive for coronavirus.4 

Now, ICE officials are attempting to hide potential truths from coming out in an investigation. ICE officials attempted to deport Pauline Binam, a Black immigrant woman from Cameroon who had her fallopian tube removed without her consent. But Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal and Sheila Jackson Lee managed to intervene and get Pauline off a plane in Chicago before it took off.5 That’s right -- ICE attempted to deport a key witness in this investigation just yesterday. We must act now to ensure this place is closed before any more women are forced into unnecessary and dangerous procedures.

John, this has to stop, but we need your help to intervene. Sign the petition to demand Irwin Detention Center is closed NOW.

Irwin Detention Center is notorious for human rights abuses and violations. For years, there have been numerous reports of inadequate medical care, poor food and hygiene, and extreme temperatures.6 Local activists and community organizers have been calling for the immediate closure of this dangerous facility for almost a decade. Currently, the detention center is operated by a private prison company called La Salle Corrections.7 Irwin County officials contract with ICE to run the facility, but Governor Brian Kemp can intervene, revoke ICE's license to operate, and shut down the detention center for good. 

Dawn Wooten explained that a number of women at Irwin detention center who see Dr. Mahendra Amin have had a hysterectomy. Many of these women did not understand the reason for the surgeries and were often given different sometimes conflicting explanations. Several women underwent “rough treatment” by Amin during gynecological exams -- many were told they had no choice but to go to the doctor.8 One woman even requested deportation for fear that she would lose her reproductive system if she stayed at Irwin Detention Center.

Both Irwin County Hospital CEO Paige Wynn and Dr. Amin have failed to adequately respond to these horrifying allegations. In response, Amin has said that he’s only performed “one or two hysterectomies in the past two [or] three years,” and did not admit or specify if he’s performed hysterectomies at Irwin Detention Center.9 And this is not the first criminal allegation against him. He’s been taken to court in the past for making false Medicaid claims -- he was billing for unnecessary obstetric ultrasounds that resulted in a half a million-dollar payout to the government. 

This is a pattern, and ICE officials at Irwin Detention Center are allowing this man to continue terrorizing the people being held at this facility. 

Enough is enough. Tell Governor Brian Kemp to revoke ICE’s license and close Irwin Detention Center immediately.

This disturbing news of forced sterilizations echoes a time when Black and brown women, indigenous people, immigrants, people with disabilities, and more recently, incarcerated people were systematically sterilized. Public officials would regularly violate oppressed people’s bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom. As recently as 2010, nearly two thousand women were forcibly sterilized inside California prisons, the majority of whom are Black and brown.

The human rights violations taking place inside the Irwin Detention Center are not new nor are these violations unprecedented. These actions are rooted in eugenics -- a racist belief that some human beings are inherently tainted and should not be allowed to procreate. This is anti-Black and anti-immigrant violence. This is genocide. And this human suffering must come to an end.

Tell Georgia Governor Brian Kemp: Shut down Irwin Detention Center immediately.

Until justice is real, 

--Scott, Rashad, Arisha, Erika, Malachi, Marybeth, Madison, Leonard, Ernie, McKayla, and the rest of the Color Of Change team

References:

  1. “He Just Empties You All Out”: Whistle Blower Reports High Number of Hysterectomies at Ice Detention Facility." The Intercept. https://act.colorofchange.org/go/270048?t=6&akid=45784%2E4731121%2EJa5D3R
  2. Ibid.
  3. Whistleblower Alleges 'Medical Neglect,' Questionable Hysterectomies Of ICE Detainees NPR. https://act.colorofchange.org/go/270049?t=8&akid=45784%2E4731121%2EJa5D3R
  4. "Inquiry Ordered Into Claims Immigrants Had Unwanted Gynecology Procedures." New York Times. https://act.colorofchange.org/go/270050?t=10&akid=45784%2E4731121%2EJa5D3R
  5. "ICE Almost Deported Immigrant Woman Who Says She Got Unwanted Surgery While Detained." NPR. https://act.colorofchange.org/go/270051?t=12&akid=45784%2E4731121%2EJa5D3R
  6. Immigrant Detainees Stage Protest For More COVID-19 Protections: ‘WE ARE NOT SAFE.' Type Investigations. https://act.colorofchange.org/go/270052?t=14&akid=45784%2E4731121%2EJa5D3R
  7. La Salle Corrections
  8. “He Just Empties You All Out”: Whistle Blower Reports High Number of Hysterectomies at Ice Detention Facility." The Intercept. https://act.colorofchange.org/go/270048?t=17&akid=45784%2E4731121%2EJa5D3R
  9. Ibid.

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