Members of Congress are pushing the administration for further inquiries after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced this week it is investigating the claims of abuses on immigrant women. 

These abuses include unnecessary gynecological surgeries, which include full hysterectomies without immigrant women's consent. Immigration lawyers said they would be interviewing detainees this week to determine how big the issue might be.

Some immigrants claimed that parts of their Fallopian tubes and their ovaries had been removed while in custody.

Over 170 Democratic members of Congress issued a letter on Tuesday to DHS's Inspector General, encouraging the office to open "an immediate investigation."

The immigrants' abuse allegation  came from a complaint filed by Project South, which is an Atlanta-based advocacy group. Georgia Detention Watch, Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, and South Georgia Immigrant Support Network also filed a similar complaint.

The complaint lists Dawn Wooten, a former nurse at the Irwin County Detention Center, as a whistleblower.

Wooten details medical neglect, such as refusal to test detainees for COVID-19 and an alarming practice of allegedly subjected female immigrants to hysterectomies without their full understanding and consent.

The said private prison company LaSalle Corrections runs the detention center and overseen by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Aside from the unconsented hysterectomies, allegations of sexual assault and harassment at an El Paso immigrant center also prompted the investigation.

A 35-year-old woman has been held in the facility, overseen by ICE, for about a year. She told lawyers the "pattern and practice" of abuse there, including guards assaulting her and other detainees in areas not seen to security cameras.

Many guards forcibly kissed her, according to the complainant. At least one touched her private parts several times as she walked back from the medical unit to her barrack.

"If she behaved," she said one guard told her, "he would help her be released."

The inspector general requested that ICE not to deport the woman. Her lawyers said the FBI interviewed her extensively.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas and the El Paso County District Attorney's Office also received a copy of the woman's complaint. The said government agencies did not immediately respond to request to comment.

Jeanette Harper, a spokeswoman for the FBI's El Paso office, said the agency's policy prohibits it from commenting on an ongoing investigation.

Harper said the lead agency into the woman's claims is now the Justice Department's Inspector General, responsible for accusations of civil rights abuses.

Her lawyers filed a habeas petition in federal court last Friday, asking that the woman be freed on supervised release.

Three days after her habeas filing, the DHS' inspector general reversed its previous move and told ICE that the agency could deport the woman. 

According to her lawyers, investigators would further interview the complainant through telephone from Mexico if needed. She had been set back within hours even though she says she fears persecution from drug cartels there.

A high-ranking cartel member sexually assaulted him and threatened her after reporting the attack to police, as stated under the statement she gave to the U.S. government. 

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