John,

Last fall, a whistleblower complaint about the Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC), an immigration detention center in Georgia, brought the country’s attention to alarming accounts of egregious medical abuse, including claims of a doctor performing invasive gynecological procedures on detained women without their informed consent.

CREW, along with Project South and the National Immigration Project, began investigating—and the records we got back are damning.

The records show truly troubling systemic problems that go far beyond the single doctor accused of medical abuse. For more, read our full report.

Here’s just a snapshot of what the records show:

A failure to monitor doctors’ consent protocols and use of language translation services, and a lack of Spanish-speaking medical staff. Several emails suggest a hands-off approach by ICE under which it did not track, monitor, or audit whether (or how) outside medical providers obtained informed consent for medical procedures from people detained at ICDC, or used language translation services when providing medical treatment to people with limited English proficiency.
Violations of ICE detention standards for medical care and vetting medical providers. Inspection reports found numerous violations of ICE detention standards and other deficiencies, including an inability to “validate if peer reviews” by an “external state physician” had been completed for “independently licensed medical professionals” providing care to people detained at ICDC.
A history of complaints lodged with ICE by the Mexican Consulate and advocates, with claims of abuse and neglect at ICDC going back as far as 2018. The claims included “verbal abuse and continuous discrimination” by ICDC staff; serving molding and rotting food; unhygienic conditions in the showers, hallways and dining areas; and insect infestation in both the food being served and communal areas. A March 2020 weekly report from ICE Detention Standards Compliance Officers described an ICDC officer who on multiple occasions exposed himself and made sexual comments and gestures in front of a detainee.

Just last month, ICE announced that it was ending federal contracts with ICDC as soon as possible, which is an important step. But that’s just the start. Wrongdoers must be held accountable, victims must be provided with redress and compensation, and oversight and investigations must not stop here—this is just one detention center, and we know that ICE has systemic failures with oversight and transparency. Here at CREW, we’ll keep fighting for answers and accountability, no matter what.

Thank you,

Noah Bookbinder
President, CREW