Suit alleges migrant center medical abuses
ATLANTA — In a federal lawsuit filed this week, dozens of women allege a pattern of medical abuse, harsh retaliation and unsanitary conditions at an immigration jail in Georgia.
Their stories amplify a whistleblower’s claims of systematic medical misconduct at the privately operated Irwin County jail in Ocilla, about 200 miles south of Atlanta. Dr. Mahendra Amin, a gynecologist, is accused of performing procedures that left detainees bleeding, bruised, traumatized and, in some cases, unable to have children.
About 40 current or former detainees have provided sworn statements detailing what they perceived as abusive treatment by Amin, and more have shared similar accounts with immigration lawyers, said Azadeh Shahshahani, legal director of Project South, an Atlanta-based advocacy group that is working on the lawsuit.
“Filing the whistleblower complaint opened the door for more and more women to come forward from all over the world,” Shahshahani said. “There’s no telling how many people suffered medical abuse while at Irwin.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which uses the Irwin County facility to hold migrants who are in the country illegally and awaiting deportation, has not responded to the lawsuit. The agency’s inspector general is investigating medical care at the facility, as are federal law enforcement officials and members of Congress.
Amin’s lawyer, Scott Grubman, did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Grubman has previously denied wrongdoing by Amin, saying the physician performed only medically necessary procedures and only with patients’ consent.
But lawyers for the detainees portrayed medical examinations and procedures as assaults that traumatized many of the women, particularly those with a history of sexual abuse. One woman said being treated by Amin was like “being raped again.”
Jaromy Floriano Navarro, a 28-year-old Mexican citizen detained at the facility for almost a year, was taken to Amin after complaining of heavy menstrual cramps. During the examination, according to court papers, Amin “rested one hand on her knee while he inspected … inside her body.”
Amin told Floriano Navarro that she needed a minor procedure to drain an ovarian cyst. Only later, as nurses prepared her for surgery in the Irwin County Hospital, did Floriano Navarro learn that Amin was about to perform a hysterectomy instead, the suit alleges. The surgery was called off when Floriano Navarro tested positive for covid-19, according to the lawsuit. During a later appointment with the doctor, according to court papers, Amin “berated” her for resisting the hysterectomy.
When Floriano Navarro returned to the jail, guards demanded to know whether she had been among the women cited in the whistleblower complaint, according to court papers. She acknowledged she was — and she was deported less than 24 hours later, the papers say. She is in Mexico now, separated from her children in the United States.
Other detainees said guards placed them in solitary confinement after they complained about Amin. Some said that after they underwent Amin’s procedures, the facility refused to furnish supplies to prevent infection of their surgical incisions. One woman had a staph infection and a yeast infection when she was deported days after Amin performed surgery, according to court papers.
Last month, a federal judge ordered immigration officials to stop deporting women from the facility who are cooperating with law enforcement or congressional investigators.
Immigration advocates have called for shutting down the facility. Shahshahani said the sheer number of women who have reported medical abuse should make a convincing argument.
“The whole picture is really disturbing,” she said. “It pains me to know there could be many more women out there in all parts of the world who will never be able to speak out about what happened to them.”