At least two Mexican women underwent surgery without their consent at a US immigration detention center, the Mexican foreign ministry said.
The ministry said in a statement Saturday that authorities from its consulate in Atlanta identified the cases after allegations emerged last month of irregularities, including sterilizations, at a privately run detention center in the state of Georgia.
It said one of the women had undergone “a surgical intervention” — but not a hysterectomy — without her consent, and did not receive post-operative care.
“The consulate general requested the opinion of a medical specialist who, after an exhaustive review of the file, considers that there are irregularities or anomalies in the medical procedure,” the document read.
Diplomats were also verifying the case of another woman from the same center who had already been repatriated to Mexico, the ministry said.
The statement said she could also have “undergone gynecological surgery without her full consent, without having received an explanation in Spanish of the medical diagnosis or the nature of the medical procedures that would be performed.”
The Mexican government reported late last month that it was investigating whether six of its citizens were sterilized without their consent at the immigration detention center in Irwin County.
The allegations came from a whistleblower, a nurse at the center, where some detainees are held under Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.
The nurse said the detained women told her they did not fully understand why they had to get a hysterectomy — an operation involving the full or partial removal of the uterus.
NGOs Project South, Georgia Detention Watch, the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, and the South Georgia Immigrant Support Network have filed a complaint to the government on behalf of detained immigrants and the nurse.
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