The Honorable Bennie Thompson
2466 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative Thompson,
Inspired by leaders like you who fight for justice every day, Abigail Leibowitz founded F.A.I.R- Fans of Asylum and Immigration Reform (instagram- @students.fair), a high school student advocacy group dedicated to seeking justice and aid for immigrants and asylum seekers.
We, students of F.A.I.R, are outraged at the recent allegations by nurse Dawn Wooten that medical professionals are performing mass hysterectomies on women in the Irwin County Detention Facility without their consent while also neglecting critical health needs in the facility, such as testing for Covid-19.
Wooten’s claim that “everybody he [ Dr. Mahendra Ami] sees has a hysterectomy — just about everybody,” is horrific. Project South published a report in which multiple women came forward admitting an unusual rate of hysterectomies performed and detailing the confusion they all had during these procedures- many not understanding what was happening to them. Gender oppression and the attack on reproductive rights have a direct correlation with authoritarianism, and ICE’s blatant human rights abuses have now shined a critical light on this truth.
While ICE claims that “unproven allegations, made without any fact-checkable specifics, should be treated with the appropriate skepticism they deserve,” we urge the House Committee on Homeland Security to look into these allegations with uttermost seriousness. All parties responsible- Dr. Mahendra Ami, authorities at Irwin County Detention Center, and La Salle Corrections (who own and operate ICDC under contract)- must be held accountable for this atrocity.
Further, Wooten claimed nurses in ICE facilities have ignored detainees reporting COVID-19 symptoms and that the facility declined to use two rapid-testing COVID-19 machines that ICE purchased for $14,000 each. This pandemic has brought to light the abhorrent conditions and neglect that take place in ICE facilities- nationwide, 5,772 detainees tested positive according to ICE, a number that doesn’t even reflect the true amount of cases as ICE has undercounted Covid-19 data.
We demand that you and the rest of the House Committee on Homeland Security investigate these atrocities, see that they are stopped, and hold ICE and its facilities accountable.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Respectfully yours,
High School Student Signatures