Lawyers who represented women at the ICE facility in Georgia where a doctor was accused of performing unwanted hysterectomies say the problems run deeper than that complaint

• A whistleblower complaint released by the advocacy group Project South this week accused a Georgia OB-GYN of performing unwanted hysterectomies on immigrant women held at the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia.
• Dr. Mahendra Amin’s attorney told Insider that his client denied any wrongdoing alleged in the complaint and was confident his name would be cleared after an investigation.
• Attempts to reach LaSalle, the for-profit company that runs Irwin, were unsuccessful. Tony H. Pham, the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, called for a quick and thorough investigation into the whistleblower complaint, saying the concerns were “very serious.”
• Immigration attorneys who have represented people detained at Irwin told Insider that issues at the facility run deeper than the Project South complaint that grabbed national attention.
• Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.

A whistleblower complaint from a nurse at a Georgia immigration detention center ignited a furor among advocates, Congress, and the public this week.

In the complaint, the advocacy group Project South and the nurse, Dawn Wooten, alleged that, in addition to poor medical care, testing, and safety precautions related to COVID-19, women detained at the Irwin Detention Center had been subjected to hysterectomies and procedures they didn’t consent to or understand.

The accusation of mass sterilization at a government facility drew global attention and outrage.

While Project South didn’t identify the doctor responsible, lawyers for women who had previously raised concerns told Insider, NBC, and other news outlets that it was Dr. Mahendra Amin, an obstetrician-gynecologist and businessman with practices in southern Georgia.

Through his attorney, Scott Grubman, Amin denied any wrongdoing and said he was confident that his name would be cleared after an investigation.

"We are aware of the whistle blower's allegations as they relate to Dr. Amin, and vehemently deny them," Grubman told Insider in an email. "Dr. Amin is a highly respected physician who has dedicated his adult life to treating a high-risk, underserved population in rural Georgia."

But immigration attorneys in the area told Insider that the issues at Irwin run deeper than the headline-grabbing hysterectomy allegations.

The doctor identified in the complaint settled a false-claims investigation in 2015

There are no disciplinary actions noted on Amin's medical license, but this whistleblower complaint isn't the first time that his reputation has come under question.

Amin, who runs two practices in Douglas and Ocilla, Georgia, also runs a company that had entered into a management agreement with the local hospital.

In 2013, he and several other doctors tied to the Irwin County Hospital, and the hospital itself, were the target of a whistleblower civil case prosecuted by the Department of Justice and the state of Georgia. It accused them of defrauding the Medicaid and Medicare programs by submitting false claims.

Investigators alleged that Amin had required "certain tests always be run on pregnant patients, without any medical evaluation and regardless of her condition," the AP reported.

The settlement agreement from 2015, which was viewed by Insider, said the hospital, Amin, and eight other doctors promised to repay $520,000 to the government-funded programs.

The doctors retained their medical licenses in the state of Georgia and Amin continues to accept Medicare and Medicaid patients.

Grubman, who also represented Amin in the civil suit, told Insider that the settlement was reached "without any admission of liability."

"None of the allegations contained in the 2013 complaint were adjudicated in court, and the case was ultimately dismissed," he told Insider. "Importantly, Dr. Amin was not required to pay any fine in connection with that settlement."

When asked how Amin was contracted years later to treat federal detainees, an ICE spokeswoman told Insider that "the doctor" isn't an employee of ICE, but rather an outside referral.

"Outside specialists are chosen by the facility from among the local community providers willing to accept ICE detainees as patients," the spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. "In some cases, the facility provider or clinical director may have community contacts they routinely work with."

Irwin Detention Center, with a capacity of 1,201 detainees, is run by the for-profit company LaSalle Corrections. Several attempts to reach LaSalle executive Scott Sutterfield, whom staff directed questions to, were unsuccessful. The company currently manages 18 facilities in Louisiana, Texas, and Georgia.

The Georgia Composite Medical Board also didn't return an email from Insider seeking comment.

A local immigration lawyer who's represented women at the facility says they alleged negative experiences with the doctor

A Georgia attorney who has represented clients detained at Irwin told Insider that when Wooten's whistleblower complaint went public she felt a wave of relief.

"I totally believed them with every fiber of my being and felt relieved," she said. The lawyer, whose identity is known to Insider, requested anonymity out of fear of legal repercussions.

During a two-week period in 2018, the attorney told Insider she had received several complaints from clients about Amin.

Overall, the lawyer said the women talked generally about negative experiences during their visits, indicating that the doctor was too rough or impersonal and that they didn't want to be treated by him again.

As an immigration attorney, it wasn't this lawyer's role to intervene in these kind of complaints, but she did when one of her client's gynecological illness was so serious that she became concerned for her life.

The detainee had recently had a miscarriage while in custody and in the months that followed she continued to have gynecological complications, the lawyer told Insider. She continued to have office visits with Amin for more than six months, but there was no improvement or treatment, she told the lawyer.

The lawyer said she went to a facility director to explain the situation and urged them to take the woman to a different doctor. When they did, the client was prescribed antibiotics for an underlying infection and recovered soon after, the lawyer told Insider.

The lawyer alleged there was a clear "modus operandi," where detainees would go to the doctor for a gynecological visit and be diagnosed with issues — like ovarian cysts, or heavy menstrual bleeding — that she said required follow-up visits.

"Maybe it's a money scheme, but people have been telling the facility that this doctor had been hurting them for at least two years," the lawyer told Insider. "If the government tries to say they didnt know about this, they're lying."

On Friday, The Associated Press published an investigative report, detailing a review of medical records for four women detained at Irwin.

While the outlet wasn't able to confirm allegations of mass hysterectomies, it spoke to detainees, or their attorneys, who said they were confused about gynecological procedures that Amin had performed on them.

Mileidy Cardentey Fernandez, a 39-year-old from Cuba, told the AP that she underwent an operation to treat ovarian cysts a month ago, but wasn't sure what proceed ure she got. After requesting her medical documents multiple times, she received more than 100 pages, but none from the day of the surgery, the AP reported.

An attorney for another woman, Pauline Binam of Cameroon, told the AP that Amin treated his client for an irregular menstrual cycle.

She was told she would be having a "D&C," or a dilation and curettage to remove a part of the lining in the uterus, the AP reported. When she woke up, though, she learned Amin removed on of her two fallopian tubes, which connect the uterus to the ovaries and are necessary to conceive a child, her attorney told the AP.

"She was shocked and sort of confronted him on that — that she hadn't given her consent for him to proceed with that," attorney Van Huynh told the AP. "The reply that he gave was they were in there anyway and found there was this problem."

How the Project South complaint came to be

Insider hasn't independently verified accounts of unwanted hysterectomy allegations at Irwin Detention Center.

Project South, on Wooten's behalf, denied a request from Insider to interview the nurse.

At a press conference this week, Wooten read a statement, but didn't take questions regarding details about specifics on the hysterectomy allegations.

On Thursday evening, Azadeh N. Shahshahani, the legal and advocacy director at Project South, told Insider the organization produced a report on conditions at Irwin and the Stewart Detention Center, also in Georgia, in 2017 that alleged poor medical care and mistreatment at the facility.

Since then, she said Project South has stayed in touch with some of the people at the facility and kept an eye on the situation.

"Over the years, we kept visiting. We kept talking ot the people detained there," she said. "During the pandemic, the concerns were definitely raised to a new high level."

Shahshahani said Project South learned of a lack of COVID-19 testing and proper safety protocols.

This summer, the group was put in touch with Wooten, who was outraged over the lack of COVID-19 safety as well as the medical care at the facility. She shared reports of what she believes are improper gynecological visits and a high rate of hysterectomies with Project South.

Shahshahani said the group knew they needed to act urgently on the allegation, demanding an independent investigation.

Project South said it has been able to talk to detainees who said they witnessed what they believed were unusually high rates of hysterectomies among other women being held at the facility — one of them said she knew five women who had the procedure. Wooten, too, described a high number of the surgeries.

"We've questioned among ourselves like goodness he's taking everybody's stuff out…That's his specialty, he's the uterus collector," Wooten told Project South, according to the complaint. "I know that's ugly…is he collecting these things or something."

Project South spoke directly to one detainee who told them she was scheduled for a hysterectomy, which she didn't understand why, but it was canceled because of a positive COVID-19 antibody test, according to the complaint. She further explained confusion about gynecological treatments ordered by the doctor, which she thought were unnecessary.

When asked about the vetting process on accounts described in the complaint, Shahshahani said the organization has connected with some women by phone or letter. Other reports were secondhand.

"The timing has been extremely short, so, you know, we have not had the chance to go dig in as far as documents, as we normally may have, because we wanted to get this out as soon as possible," she told Insider.

Some question the hysterectomy allegations. Others point to a lack of understanding stemming from a language barrier.

Yet some who have worked with detainees are questioning some allegations made in the Project South complaint.

Local immigration attorney Paul Alvarado told Insider that he's "very, very skeptical" about the allegations of unwanted hysterectomies. Alvarado estimates that he's been to Irwin representing clients more than 100 times.

"I've never heard of any sort of medical mistreatment from the clients and I've represented hundreds of clients from Irwin so it came as a shock to me when I read it," he said.

While clients might complain about delays and other issues inherent to the immigration system, he said he hadn't been made aware of OB/GYN concerns.

"I've been an immigration lawyer for 24 years. I'm a huge proponent of immigration reform," he said. "I'm an advocate for the rights of these undocumented aliens and I'd be the first to get to the podium and scream if something smelled fishy — but I have not heard of any of this."

Others feel like the report lines up with a history of concerns raised at Irwin.

An attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has several lawyers dedicated to Irwin cases, told Insider the allegations are on track with the medical care at the facility, which she called "abhorrent."

Attorney Laura Williams said the SPLC has represented several clients detained at Irwin who were not given access to medical care, including at least one with a life-threatening condition that went weeks without medication.

The SPLC is currently looking into the cases of any women they served who have come in contact with Amin for gynecological care.

"Generally speaking, across the board we've seen the detention centers fail to address medical needs," Williams said.

The lawyer who has represented women seen by Amin in 2018 said there is a shortage of doctors in the region where Irwin is located.

She also said a lack of interpreters speaking the native language of the detainees likely plays a role in the lack of proper medical care.

For the two years she worked out of Irwin full-time, there was only one facility employee who was fluent in Spanish, she said. Employees would use dial-by-phone translation services or apps to communicate, but oftentimes they wouldn't make the effort, she told Insider.

Oftentimes, immigrants from Central America in federal custody speak a myriad of native languages that the US government doesn't always have interpreters for, multiple reports have found over the years.

On its website, LaSalle outlines its standards for healthcare at its facilities:

"We employ and contract with experienced physicians, nurses, and other medical professionals to provide care tailored for inmates. Our staff understands the importance of maintaining proper documentation of medical records that is critical for effective treatments. Constant and clear communication with inmates and amongst the staff are essential for an efficient healthcare delivery system."

The immigration lawyer and Project South are hoping for real, lasting change at Irwin

While the lawyer said she's had concerns about the treatment of women at the facility for years, she felt like her concerns "as an outsider looking in" were brushed off. Wooten, being on the inside, might have more of a chance to bring change, she said.

"I'm worried and concerned that this [complaint] is just going to be a trend, and the government is going to be able to pass the buck and escape culpability," she said. "I want to see real systemic change."

Shahshahani, too, wants the attention generated by their complaint to bring real and lasting change.

Project South had sent several letters demanding change in the past, but this one alleging mass hysterectomies has made bigger waves.

On Friday, ICE released a statement from ICE director Tony H. Pham, calling for a quick and thorough investigations into the whistleblower complaint, calling the concerns raised "very serious."

"ICE welcomes the efforts of both the Office of Inspector General as well as the Department of Homeland Security's parallel review. As a former prosecutor, individuals found to have violated our policies and procedures should be held accountable," the statement said. "If there is any truth to these allegations, it is my commitment to make the corrections necessary to ensure we continue to prioritize the health, welfare and safety of ICE detainees."

Wooten's complaint and statements made by Project South have caused outrage from among Democratic lawmakers, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, as well as the public.

The House immigration subcommittee is investigating the complaint.

Shahshahani told Insider that she wants to see the facility closed because its issues are built into its operating structure.

And while the allegations of abuses involving reproductive health are "outrageous" and need to be stopped, Shahshahani said, other issues involving reports of a lack of COVID-19 testing and care, or delayed medications, also deserve attention.

"We're talking about a whole system of human rights violations against a detained population. That's why we're calling for this facility to be shut down," she said. "We don't believe that things are going to change if you get rid of one doctor or have a superficial change in the medical staff."

• Read more: 
• A whistleblower is accusing doctors at an ICE detention center of surgically removing the wombs of some immigrant detainees
• The House immigration subcommittee is investigating a whistleblower complaint accusing doctors at an ICE detention center of surgically removing detainees' wombs
• ICE deported a key witness in an ongoing sexual assault investigation at a Texas detention center, report says
• Evangelical leaders express shock over report of sterilization of detainees at an ICE detention facility