Update on ICDC Investigation

Two people stand in front of a detention center. One has their arm around the other. There is text that reads Justice for ICDC Survivors.

Earlier this month, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, Chairwoman of the Oversight and Reform Committee, Rep. Nanette Barragán, Chairwoman of the Border Security, Facilitation, & Operations Subcommittee, and Rep. Jamie Raskin, Chairman of the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Subcommittee, sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) regarding conditions at DHS detention facilities. This letter follows an investigation by the Committees into the mistreatment of migrants detained at Irwin County Detention Center (“ICDC”) in Georgia.

In their letter, the Representatives call for a briefing regarding Dr. Mahendra Amin, ICDC’s primary gynecologist who conducted nonconsensual, invasive gynecological procedures on various women detained at ICDC, as well as DHS’s actions to ensure proper medical care is available to migrants in ICE facilities.

We are encouraged to see Congress taking steps to raise awareness regarding the mistreatment of the women at ICDC. We recently highlighted these abuses in the report we co-authored, Violence and Violation: Medical abuse of immigrants detained at the Irwin County Detention Center, which features firsthand accounts from survivors who were subjected to Dr. Amin’s horrific procedures. The report was written in collaboration with Project SouthGeorgia Detention WatchGeorgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, and South Georgia Immigrant Support Network

We urge Congress to support the report’s recommendations, which include closing ICDC, reparations for all the survivors of ICDC, and defunding ICE and the immigrant detention system.