Immigrant women detained at a notorious Georgia facility were forced to undergo “invasive, and often unnecessary gynecological procedures” by a government-contracted doctor, an 18-month-long congressional investigation into the alleged abuses has confirmed.
While the report released by Senator Jon Ossoff this week said that investigators didn’t find evidence confirming "allegations of mass hysterectomies,” a contracted doctor did force unneeded and harmful procedures on a number of women detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC) in Ocilla. The doctor also repeatedly failed “to secure informed consent for offsite medical procedures performed on ICDC detainees,” investigators said.
The gynecologist, Mahendra Amin, is currently under federal investigation. Investigators said Amin refused to cooperate in the probe, invoking his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination when subpoenaed by the committee. Since the allegations emerged in 2020, the Biden administration has also ordered the termination of the facility’s ICE contract.
RELATED STORY: Shocking report sheds light on gross human rights violations faced by women at Georgia ICE site
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“This is an extraordinarily disturbing finding, and in my view [...] represents a catastrophic failure by the Federal government to respect basic human rights,” Ossoff said in remarks during a hearing this week. “Among the serious abuses this subcommittee has investigated during the last two years, subjecting female detainees to nonconsensual and unnecessary gynecological surgeries is one of the most nightmarish and disgraceful.”
The report notes that, despite the Department of Justice and the state of Georgia having taken legal action against Amin nearly a decade ago over claims “he had committed Medicaid fraud by ordering unnecessary and excessive medical procedures,” the gynecologist was somehow treating immigrant women in U.S. custody. The report said that Amin had settled with the federal government for more than half a million dollars without having admitted any wrongdoing. Prism's Tina Vasquez had diligently been reporting on this and other allegations more than two years ago.
“The subcommittee’s review of Dr. Amin’s treatment practices of ICE detainees after the settlement, from 2017 to 2020, identified a similar pattern of potentially excessive medical procedures,” investigators said. They that while ICDC detained a small percentage of all ICE detainees, Amin “performed nearly one-third of certain OB-GYN procedures on ICE detainees across the country between 2017 and 2020 and more than 90% of some key procedures.”
“Let me reiterate those statistics: one doctor, 6.5% of OBGYN visits; 82% of D&C surgeries, 93% of contraceptive injections, 94% of all laparoscopic surgeries to remove lesions, performed on the entire nationwide ICE detainee population,” Ossoff said during the hearing.
Among the immigrant women interviewed for the report was Karina Cisneros Preciado, who was also present at the hearing and called an “extraordinarily courageous woman” by the senator. Investigators said Cisneros Preciado had been referred to Amin for lower abdominal pain after having recently given birth. But she said “that instead of explaining the procedures he intended to perform, Dr. Amin simply told Ms. Cisneros Preciado to ‘open your legs.’” She was then told she’d be getting a pap smear, but knew that the procedure being performed on her was actually a vaginal ultrasound. She felt she had no choice but to comply.
Amin then told Cisneros Preciado that she had an ovarian cyst, and that he would administer a Depo-Provera injection. She was never told what this was.
“Ms. Cisneros Preciado did not return to Dr. Amin for additional treatment because the allegations about him became public a few weeks later,” investigators said. “On October 5, 2020, Ms. Cisneros Preciado received a transvaginal ultrasound at ICH for ‘report [of an] ovarian cyst.’ The imaging report states that the ultrasound showed ‘[t]he uterus is normal in its appearance’ and found an ‘nremarkable evaluation of the pelvis.’”
"The reason I'm telling this story is because this shouldn't happen to anyone anymore," Cisneros Preciado said in remarks reported by CBS News. "We're not animals. We're human. We're not just a number."
CBS News reports that any attorney for Amin “accused the subcommittee of focusing on ‘scoring political points.’” Scott Grubman told the outlet that Amin “has been practicing for nearly 40 years, and has never performed a procedure that was not, in his professional judgment, necessary and appropriate.” Amin certainly had his chance to go in front of the committee, and in front of the world to testify about these allegations under oath. But he refused, even when faced with a subpoena.
RELATED STORIES:
ICE has known for years that gynecologist was abusing detained immigrants, lawsuit alleges
DHS secretary orders termination of ICE contracts with two sites under federal investigation
'Years of work on the ground made this happen': Immigrants finally moved from notorious ICE facility
While the report released by Senator Jon Ossoff this week said that investigators didn’t find evidence confirming "allegations of mass hysterectomies,” a contracted doctor did force unneeded and harmful procedures on a number of women detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC) in Ocilla. The doctor also repeatedly failed “to secure informed consent for offsite medical procedures performed on ICDC detainees,” investigators said.
The gynecologist, Mahendra Amin, is currently under federal investigation. Investigators said Amin refused to cooperate in the probe, invoking his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination when subpoenaed by the committee. Since the allegations emerged in 2020, the Biden administration has also ordered the termination of the facility’s ICE contract.
RELATED STORY: Shocking report sheds light on gross human rights violations faced by women at Georgia ICE site
Campaign Action
“This is an extraordinarily disturbing finding, and in my view [...] represents a catastrophic failure by the Federal government to respect basic human rights,” Ossoff said in remarks during a hearing this week. “Among the serious abuses this subcommittee has investigated during the last two years, subjecting female detainees to nonconsensual and unnecessary gynecological surgeries is one of the most nightmarish and disgraceful.”
The report notes that, despite the Department of Justice and the state of Georgia having taken legal action against Amin nearly a decade ago over claims “he had committed Medicaid fraud by ordering unnecessary and excessive medical procedures,” the gynecologist was somehow treating immigrant women in U.S. custody. The report said that Amin had settled with the federal government for more than half a million dollars without having admitted any wrongdoing. Prism's Tina Vasquez had diligently been reporting on this and other allegations more than two years ago.
“The subcommittee’s review of Dr. Amin’s treatment practices of ICE detainees after the settlement, from 2017 to 2020, identified a similar pattern of potentially excessive medical procedures,” investigators said. They that while ICDC detained a small percentage of all ICE detainees, Amin “performed nearly one-third of certain OB-GYN procedures on ICE detainees across the country between 2017 and 2020 and more than 90% of some key procedures.”
“Let me reiterate those statistics: one doctor, 6.5% of OBGYN visits; 82% of D&C surgeries, 93% of contraceptive injections, 94% of all laparoscopic surgeries to remove lesions, performed on the entire nationwide ICE detainee population,” Ossoff said during the hearing.
Among the immigrant women interviewed for the report was Karina Cisneros Preciado, who was also present at the hearing and called an “extraordinarily courageous woman” by the senator. Investigators said Cisneros Preciado had been referred to Amin for lower abdominal pain after having recently given birth. But she said “that instead of explaining the procedures he intended to perform, Dr. Amin simply told Ms. Cisneros Preciado to ‘open your legs.’” She was then told she’d be getting a pap smear, but knew that the procedure being performed on her was actually a vaginal ultrasound. She felt she had no choice but to comply.
Amin then told Cisneros Preciado that she had an ovarian cyst, and that he would administer a Depo-Provera injection. She was never told what this was.
“Ms. Cisneros Preciado did not return to Dr. Amin for additional treatment because the allegations about him became public a few weeks later,” investigators said. “On October 5, 2020, Ms. Cisneros Preciado received a transvaginal ultrasound at ICH for ‘report [of an] ovarian cyst.’ The imaging report states that the ultrasound showed ‘[t]he uterus is normal in its appearance’ and found an ‘nremarkable evaluation of the pelvis.’”
"The reason I'm telling this story is because this shouldn't happen to anyone anymore," Cisneros Preciado said in remarks reported by CBS News. "We're not animals. We're human. We're not just a number."
CBS News reports that any attorney for Amin “accused the subcommittee of focusing on ‘scoring political points.’” Scott Grubman told the outlet that Amin “has been practicing for nearly 40 years, and has never performed a procedure that was not, in his professional judgment, necessary and appropriate.” Amin certainly had his chance to go in front of the committee, and in front of the world to testify about these allegations under oath. But he refused, even when faced with a subpoena.
RELATED STORIES:
ICE has known for years that gynecologist was abusing detained immigrants, lawsuit alleges
DHS secretary orders termination of ICE contracts with two sites under federal investigation
'Years of work on the ground made this happen': Immigrants finally moved from notorious ICE facility