Immigrants being held at a privately operated detention center in Georgia have been subjected to a pattern of sexual assault and retaliation from guards for reporting repeated assaults on those detained there, according to an administrative complaint filed this week by the Southern Poverty Law Center and a coalition of People submitted rights groups.
The complaint, filed yesterday on behalf of four women, includes first-hand accounts of immigrants being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia. The complaint, which details the abuse from July 2021 to January 2022, includes accounts of women who say a male nurse sexually assaulted them while they were seeking medical care at the facility. The nurse is employed by CoreCivic, which runs the private immigrant prison.
During detention, two of the detained immigrant women informed Stewart officers of the nurse’s behavior. Both filed multiple complaints and were repeatedly threatened with retaliation, legal action, jail terms and extended detention. Officers also withheld food from a woman to prevent her from participating in an internal investigation.
The complaint was the subject of a press conference today at the ICE Atlanta field office by El Refugio, a nonprofit organization that helps detained immigrants, and community leaders and organizations.
“Our community is here to say to the survivors, ‘We see you, we hear you. Nobody deserves these abuses. We care about you, we appreciate you and we worry about you,'” said Amilcar Valencia, director of El Refugio, at the press conference.
“We’re also here to say – not another one!” Johanna Garcia, advocacy coordinator for El Refugio, said at the press conference. “How many more black and brown bodies must be sacrificed to make a difference?”
In the complaint, a woman identified as Viviana Doe said: “I’m angry because I know this man is still working at Stewart after abusing me and so many girls, even when the entire Stewart staff knew what was happening is. It frightens me so much that Stewart’s staff would cover up to allow the abuse of so many women and that the staffer who sexually harassed me is still there and being exposed to hundreds of women.”
The complaint was filed with various US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies in partnership with Black Alliance for Just Immigration, El Refugio, Georgia Detention Watch, Georgia Human Rights Clinic, Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR), Owings MacNorlin LLC , Project South and the SPLC.
“These brave women took a great risk by sharing these disturbing reports, which unfortunately are not isolated incidents,” said Monica Whatley, project coordinator for the SPLC’s Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative, which provides free, direct legal representation to detained immigrants. “They confirm what community organizers, human rights activists and immigrant detainees have warned for years – ICE prisons are fundamentally inhumane, corrupt and riddled with abuse and cover-ups.”
The four immigrant women also filed licensing complaints against the nurse with the Georgia Licensing Board, calling for disciplinary action for violating the rules and laws that govern his practice. Advocacy groups also filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to obtain medical care records for individuals in ICE custody in Stewart.
“I can’t sleep just thinking about so many women being abused by this male nurse and I don’t understand how they allow this man to continue working at the Stewart Detention Center after all the staff know he is a sex offender is.” a woman, identified as Maria Doe, stated in the complaint. “Why do you keep covering up his crimes? For which purpose? How many more women must become victims of this corrupt center? All I want is for justice to be served and for this man to never abuse women again. They must stop violating the human rights of all women at Stewart. Enough of tormenting us!”
The allegations against the nurse are part of a series of complaints of medical abuse and reckless misconduct at Stewart and other ICE prisons.
Stewart has long been the focus of numerous investigations into his abusive treatment of immigrants in custody and is currently under investigation by the DHS Office of Inspector General. It has the highest reported number of deaths from COVID-19 of any ICE facility, as well as the highest reported number of COVID-19 cases among ICE detention facilities.
Immigrant rights advocates and human rights groups have repeatedly called for the closure of Stewart and the release of those imprisoned.
In numerous reports, investigations and court cases, the groups have documented Stewart’s improper use of solitary confinement, numerous suicide deaths, appalling conditions, forced labor, widespread exposure to COVID-19, failure to comply with pandemic response requirements, medical neglect and racial discrimination. Stewart has also been the focus of investigative media reports of the use of force by staff at CoreCivic, the country’s largest private prison company.
The announcement of multiple incidents of sexual assault in Stewart comes after ICE terminated its contract with Georgia’s Irwin County Detention Center in May 2021 after human rights groups exposed medical abuse against migrant women there.
“While GLAHR is appalled to hear of the abuse and retribution these brave survivors have endured, given the pervasive history of abuse and human rights abuses in Georgia prisons, we are not surprised,” said GLAHR Executive Director Adelina Nicholls. “Stewart’s closure is imperative to protect immigrants from further harm.”
The transfer of immigrant women from Irwin to Stewart does not resolve the systematic and rampant abuse and neglect of people held in South Georgia detention centers, as recently noted by the Office of Inspector General in its report on the inhumane conditions at the Folkston ICE Processing Center, just three hours southeast of Stewart.
This ineffective transfer strategy is underscored by the current complaints of repeated sexual assaults occurring during Stewart’s active investigation.
Human rights groups and complainants are calling for a thorough investigation into the allegations, the immediate closure of Stewart, the release of those currently detained, redress and a way to facilitate immigration to the United States.
“It is abhorrent that the administration has moved and continues to hold migrant women in the Stewart Detention Center, knowing well the history of well-documented egregious abuse at this ICE prison,” said Azadeh Shahshahani, Legal and Advocacy Director at ICE ProjectSouth. “It is high time Stewart was shut down and all detained migrants released.”
Pictured above: Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia. (credit Reuters)
