CLOSED DOWN

Two Migrant Detention Facilities Shut Down Over Abuse Claims

At one facility, dozens of women accused a gynecologist employed by the detention center of pressuring them to undergo unnecessary and aggressive surgeries.

The Biden administration has announced that two immigrant detention centers under federal investigation following accusations of abuse of immigrants, one in Georgia and another in Massachusetts, will be closed down. At one of the two facilities, the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia, dozens of women said they suffered medical abuse at the hands of Dr. Mahendra Amin, the primary gynecologist for the facility who is now under criminal investigation. On Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that any evidence at Irwin should be kept for “ongoing investigations.” In a memo ordering the shutdown, Mayorkas said “we will not tolerate the mistreatment of individuals in civil immigration detention.” The Bristol County sheriff, whose facility is also being shut down, claims the shutdown is politically motivated. Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, a Trump ally whose department had its contract with ICE severed by Mayorkas’ order after it was investigated for allegedly brutalizing detained immigrants with dogs, pepper balls, and a stun grenade, called the move a “political hit job.”