Mexico finds medical abuses in US immigration detention center

A Mexican migrant in a United States detention center.John Moore / Getty Images

A Mexican migrant was subjected to a gynecological operation without her consent while she was detained at the Irwin Detention Center (in Georgia, United States), as confirmed by the Mexican Government in a statement this Monday afternoon.

Since September 14, the Foreign Ministry has been investigating how many Mexican migrants may have been involved in the scandal of uterus removal allegedly carried out at that institution.

At the moment, none of the 18 respondents had undergone a hysterectomy, but sources from the Secretariat confirm to EL PAÍS that the inmates' complaints point to patterns of medical negligence against Spanish-speakers.

And that the sample is still small.

The Mexican government's investigation began after the complaint made by an ex-worker at the center, the nursing assistant Dawn Wooten, on September 14, which was collected by NGOs such as Project South, Georgia Detention Watch, and the Georgia Latin Alliance for Human Rights.

In his public complaint, Wooten assured that the Irwin County Detention Center performed massive hysterectomies on migrants from different Latin American countries and pointed to a gynecologist from the institution whom he named the "uterus collector," Dr. Mahendra Amin. .

“All the people you see have a hysterectomy;

pretty much everyone, ”Wooten added.

The nurse also pointed out that some victims had told her that they did not fully understand why they should undergo the operation in which the uterus is partially or totally removed.

The Mexican Foreign Ministry highlights that at least seven of the interviewees were Amin's patients.

The most serious case revealed by the Secretariat is that of a Mexican woman - still in the center - who underwent a gynecological operation without her consent and, although they do not specify whether it was a sterilization procedure or not, they assure that it was not. a hysterectomy.

"The medical record provided by ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service] does not include documentation supporting the consent of the national for said surgical intervention," the statement concludes.

In addition, sources from the Secretariat point to another case, of a deported Mexican who underwent another gynecological intervention in that same center, although they do not specify whether or not there was consent.

The case of the Mexican migrant joins other Latin American victims from that same center.

Mileidy Cardentey Fernández, from Cuba, told the US Associated Press news agency how she underwent surgery without her consent in August.

She was told that she had to undergo an operation to treat cysts on her ovaries, but more than a month later, she remains unsure of the procedure that was performed.

After repeatedly requesting her medical records to find out, the Irwin County Detention Center gave her more than 100 pages detailing the cyst diagnosis, but nothing about the day of surgery.

This Saturday, a group of congressmen from the United States visited the center to learn first-hand about the conditions in which the migrants live and interview them about the complaints.

The congresswoman for California, Nanette Díaz Barragán, tells in an interview with this newspaper that she spoke with about eight women, but she especially remembers the testimony of a victim from El Salvador.

“In March they told him to go to the gynecologist because he had pain in his vaginal area.

She went to Dr. Amin.

And she prescribed some injections that she did not know what they were for, nor did she give her OK.

It was Depo-Provera, a contraceptive shot.

They put it on in March and after a few days, she was in a lot of pain, bent over, and started bleeding ... She was bleeding for 42 days.

She asked for a second opinion and they sent her to Psychiatry, ”says Díaz Barragán from the other end of the phone.

“The women don't even know what they are doing to them.

They are not giving consent, "adds the congresswoman.

Both Díaz and his colleagues reported this weekend the desperation of dozens of inmates who denounced humiliating treatment within the institution.

Some reproached them for having arrived "too late."

And others, like Díaz Barragán, gave him letters that read: “You don't know how much we have suffered.

Someone must answer for this. "

"Of course it is something unacceptable that we reject in advance," said Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard last week on the case of hysterectomies.

And he reported that his team, together with the Atlanta consular office, was investigating the magnitude of what, if confirmed, would be one of the largest abuses of migrants committed during the Donald Trump Administration.

Following the Wooten complaint scandal, Democrats joined the accusations after they have harshly condemned the Trump administration's treatment of immigrants in the past three years, including the separation of families and the detention of children in the border. "If true, the deplorable conditions described in the complainant's complaint - including allegations that vulnerable immigrant women are undergoing massive hysterectomies - would be a shocking human rights abuse," said the Speaker of the Chamber. of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, in a statement.