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More than a dozen women have filed a class action lawsuit and are seeking a restraining order to halt what they say amounts to medical abuse happening at a federal immigrant detention center in Georgia.
The women say they personally were subjected to nonconsensual, invasive medical examinations and procedures, including unwanted hysterectomies, at the hands of Dr. Mahendra Amin at the Irwin County Detention Center. What’s more, many of the alleged victims say their painful experiences were compounded by federal officials who retaliated against them when they spoke out.
Lawyers representing the women filed the class action lawsuit and request for a restraining order Dec. 21 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia. In addition to the 14 named plaintiffs, the court filings include sworn statements from dozens of other women detained at the Irwin center, NBC News reported, all claiming similar medical abuse and punishment — including being placed in solitary confinement, being denied water and being deported, or threatened with deportment — for complaining about the doctor.
One of the women says she spoke up about Amin’s treatment as far back as 2018.
Amin has denied the allegations.
The doctor; several employees of the Irwin detention center; the company that runs the facility, LaSalle Corrections; and several federal officials, including from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), are among the named defendants in the class action lawsuit.
A nurse at the Irwin County center came forward as a whistleblower in September, reporting the kind of alleged medical abuse and treatment the women are now suing over. The revelation prompted federal legislators and others to start asking questions.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General launched an investigation, and in October its team of medical experts said it found “a troubling pattern of inadequate care that included incorrect diagnoses and a failure to secure informed consent for surgery and other procedures,” The Washington Post reported.
In their petition for a restraining order, the women who filed the class action lawsuit are asking the court to stop ICE from using force or intimidation to retaliate against them for speaking out, or to be released from custody while their case proceeds.
Do you know someone who has been subjected to medical abuse and unwanted procedures at an immigration detention center? Tell us about it in the comment section below.
Oldaker and the proposed Class Members are represented by David N. Dreyer and Michael T. Sterling of Dreyer Sterling LLC; Elora Mukherkee of Morningside Heights Legal Services Inc.; Clare Norins of First Amendment Clinic, University of Georgia School of Law; Sarah Sherman-Stokes of Immigrants’ Rights and Human Trafficking Program, Boston University School of Law; Fatma Marouf of Immigrants Rights Clinic Texas A&M School of Law; Sirine Shebaya, Matthew S. Vogel, Amber Qureshi and Joseph Meyers of National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild; Jason A. Cade and Kristen E. Shepherd of Community Health Law Partnership, University of Georgia School of Law; Sabrineh Ardalan and Sameer Ahmed of Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program; and Azadeh Shahshahani and Priyanka Bhatt of Project South.
The Medical Abuse Class Action Lawsuit is Yanira Yesenia Oldaker, et al. v. Thomas P. Giles, et al., Case No. 7:20-cv-00224-WLS-MSH, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, Valdosta Division.
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