On Wednesday, Sept. 16, 33 members of the Hispanic Caucus, led by Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX), and Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-CA) co-led a letter to the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector, General Joseph V. Cuffari demanding an investigation into recent claims made by a whistleblower that ICE is performing mass hysterectomies on migrant women at a Georgia detention facility. 

The letter follows just one day after Rep. Jamila Jayapal (D-WA) sent a similar letter, backed by 173 members of Congress, also addressed to Cuffari.

“I co-led 173 members of Congress in demanding that DHS' Inspector General immediately open a full investigation into horrifying whistleblower allegations of mass hysterectomies being performed on immigrant women by a doctor called, ‘the uterus collector,’” Rep. Jayapal wrote.

“There can be no delay,” she continued.

Both letters call for an immediate investigation into the whistleblower complaint concerning the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia.

In the complaint, Georgia Nurse Dawn Wooten alleges a lack of medical care, unsafe work practices, and an utter lack of protection against COVID-19 for detained immigrants and employees at the detention center.

But the most disturbing claim by far was that of mass hysterectomies performed on Spanish-speaking migrant women, effectively sterilizing them.

Wooten said she believed the women did not fully understand why the procedure was being performed on them, indicating an absence of consent.

In light of these severe allegations, many are now going as far as to compare the acts as a form of genocide, reminiscent of words Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) has said in the past, then considered too radical to utter.

“It’s astounding that after a massive family separation operation, mass sexual assault of detainees, trapping immigrants in COVID-infected detention centers, and now reports of mass hysterectomies (which the US has done before), abolishing ICE is controversial. Where’s the line?” AOC wrote.

It is a horrific situation without a doubt. ICE will try to evade the answers the Hispanic Caucus seeks, but it must be held accountable.