democracynow--2020-09-22--Whistleblower Nurse in ICE Jail Alleges Forced Sterilization & Neglect Amid 8th COVID Death

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : The official death toll from COVID-19 in the United States is just hitting 200,000 , though the real number is almost certainly far higher .
Some public health experts say infections could spike this fall and winter and double the death count by the end of the year .
As the virus continues to spread , we look now at allegations that Immigration and Customs Enforcement helped spread the virus through medical neglect and abuse in ICE jails .
On Monday , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in its detention in fiscal year 2020 , making it one of the deadliest periods in the agency ’ s history .
Cipriano Chávez Álvarez was a 61-year-old Mexican immigrant who had been held at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin , Georgia , and died in a nearby hospital .
His passing marks the third COVID-19 fatality at that jail and the eighth known COVID death in ICE custody .
ICE says nearly 5,700 prisoners nationwide have been infected with COVID .
This comes as an explosive complaint filed on behalf of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ jail in Georgia , the Irwin County Detention Center , of failing to protect both prisoners and employees from the virus .
The whistleblower , Dawn Wooten , a nurse , was a nurse at the jail .
She said it failed to adhere to coronavirus safety protocols .
She also alleges a large number of unwanted hysterectomies had been performed on prisoners by a local doctor known as “ the uterus collector.
” The complaint does not name a specific staff doctor , but lawyers for several people detained there have told @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outlets , including The New York Times , that he ’ s an obstetrics and gynecology specialist named Mahendra Amin , who has an office in the city of Douglas near the ICE jail .
It ’ s been reported that Amin and other doctors previously paid half a million dollars in a settlement of a civil federal Medicare fraud allegation .
The Intercept reported that three prisoners said Amin had performed at least 20 hysterectomies over six years .
One said while Amin was excising a cyst from her ovary , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her consent .
Amin told The Intercept that , quote , “ Everything is wrong ” about the complaint .
ICE said in a statement that only two prisoners at Irwin County had undergone hysterectomies since 2018 , and has not confirmed how many other potentially sterilizing surgeries were done , such as tubal ligations .
Dawn Wooten will join us in a minute to describe what she saw .
She spoke out after nine women detained in Irwin managed to film and have uploaded to YouTube in April .
The women wore @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , “ There are sick people here , ” “ We are not criminals , ” and “ Please help.
” One by one , they came forward to tell their stories .
AMY GOODMAN : That was April .
On Monday , Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee issued a report that concluded immigrants in ICE jails systematically receive inadequate medical , dental and mental healthcare , and face solitary confinement as a punishment for speaking out .
As coronavirus cases continue to surge inside ICE prisons , the report notes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ COVID-19 has further highlighted how the failures to meet these standards of care are a matter of life and death.
” This comes as at least 160 Democratic members of Congress sent a letter to the inspector general demanding an investigation into the reports a doctor in Georgia was performing hysterectomies on immigrant women at Irwin without their consent .
This is Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey speaking Monday about whistleblower Dawn Wooten ’ s allegations .
AMY GOODMAN : All of this comes as ICE has now temporarily halted the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mother who says she was involuntarily sterilized while detained in Georgia .
Binam was already on the plane Wednesday when her deportation was stopped .
She has lived in the United States since the age of 2 .
For more , we ’ re joined from Atlanta by Dawn Wooten , the licensed practical nurse who filed this widely discussed whistleblower complaint to the Department of Homeland Security ’ s Office of Inspector General about abuses at the privately run Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia .
Also with us in Atlanta , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at Project South , which helped file the complaint .
We welcome you both to Democracy Now !
Dawn Wooten , let ’ s begin with you on this issue of forced sterilization , of hysterectomies , that is included in this complaint .
Can you explain what the women mean when they talk about a “ uterus collector ” ?
DAWN WOOTEN : I ’ ve had several women to come to me over the course of time .
And in my last attendance there at Irwin County Detention Center , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to me and say , you know , “ Every time we go out , or every time we go to this place , in talking with other detained women there , that they had this in common.
” They would talk about him being “ the uterus collector.
” And in hearing it , you know , you don ’ t know what to say or how to respond .
But that was the term that they had given at the time , was that he ’ s “ the uterus collector.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ What does he do ?
What does he go around — collecting everybody ’ s uterus ?
” You know , it ’ s jaw-dropping .
There ’ s really not a response to give them for that terminology , but that ’ s the terminology that was given to me .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : And , Dawn Wooten , how many of these women were you able to talk to directly ?
And were some of them giving you secondhand information that they had heard from other women in the center ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ family .
Whenever they cohabitate together , they build what they call families inside of the dormitories .
And they share experiences , and they share life stories there .
And they become really close .
So , in coming into , in hearing , you know , they had devised that term , “ the uterus collector.
” JUAN GONZÁLEZ : You ’ ve also raised , in your complaint , the situation in terms of the treatment of detainees , in general , about — in reference to COVID .
Could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you had with how the facility was dealing with COVID patients ?
DAWN WOOTEN : Yes .
In March , whenever we had first come across COVID-19 , the first case that was there was not a case .
You know , it was like it was invisible .
It was silenced .
You know , we were not to share it with other employees .
We were not to share it with outside .
We were not to share it amongst ourselves .
There was a time to where I was told @ @ @ @ @ @ @ officers that this person is COVID-positive .
You know , in the beginning , they didn ’ t take wearing masks seriously .
We didn ’ t have proper PPE in the beginning .
It was like a cover-up .
It never existed .
And as time progressed inside of the facility and there were more cases that systemically appeared , we were still at a place there to where you hear — it was unbelievable — “ We didn ’ t have it .
Don ’ t you talk about it .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ That ’ s not true.
” I am a mother with an underlying condition .
I have underlying conditions .
And once the terms came to , “ Hey , there ’ s COVID-19 inside of this facility , ” they were not reporting to the health department .
They were not reporting to the CDC .
So , there were cases in the beginning that were not accounted for .
They were not justified .
And I became in fear not just for myself , but for the lives of others that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my children .
We had N95s .
I received one in March .
I asked for one again in May , and I was told that “ You ’ re going to have to put this in a bag .
You were given one in March.
” And until July the 2nd , last day at the facility , I still hadn ’ t received an N95 , that I knew was in the building .
And I had a detainee to — someone stopped me in the hall and said , “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ temp ?
” I went to check the detainee ’ s temp .
It was 101.8 .
I went , and I concurred with my supervisor .
And one nurse said at the shift change it was 97.3 .
You know , going back to check it a second time , it ’ s 101.8 .
He had a valid temp .
I was told that they wrap themselves in covering , has to depend on what time of day .
“ Hand him some ibuprofen.
” That ’ s not professional nursing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can do .
He was not tested .
You have several detainees that would come up , and they would be symptomatic .
But I was told that everybody reads the news , everybody sees the news , they know how to present the symptoms coming across the news .
It was inhumane .
And it was not justifiably correct .
I live by you treat people how you want to be treated .
You don ’ t treat people as if they don ’ t exist .
And they were ignored .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ have anything to sanitize with .
There was no hand sanitizer .
We were not wiping down .
Six-feet distance — there was not six-feet distance .
We were all a couple of nurses in a room .
And not only were detainees positive , but there were also employees positive .
It wasn ’ t taken seriously .
And I feared for my life and the lives of those that are around .
AMY GOODMAN : You , yourself , Dawn Wooten , suffer from sickle cell .
You voiced your complaints @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , like you , a nurse , as well as the prisoners .
Can you talk about whether or not you think that was related to your demotion ?
DAWN WOOTEN : I do .
I have sickle cell .
I had to have a minute procedure .
And when I took it to my supervisor , I was told , “ Even though you ’ re going to be COVID-tested , you can still come to work .
Wear a mask.
” I was symptomatic .
I went to the physician earlier @ @ @ @ @ @ @ County Detention Center .
I was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection .
I had fluid on my lung .
I was taking inhalation or breathing treatments .
I was on antibiotics .
I was running a temp .
I had diarrhea .
I had headaches .
I had chest pain .
I had a cough , a raspy cough .
I was told I still could present to work because my test confirmed that I was negative , but I was symptomatic .
AMY GOODMAN : I wanted to bring Azadeh Shahshahani @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reported that another person has died in an ICE prison , not at Irwin , where Nurse Wooten worked , but in a separate facility .
And I was wondering if you can tell us the latest news on him .
AZADEH SHAHSHAHANI : Sure , Amy .
Thank you very much for having me .
First , I wanted to say that , as Project South , we ’ re part of a movement that believes that systematic and state violence is not to be tolerated in any form , so whether @ @ @ @ @ @ @ immigrants or cops murdering Black people in the streets with impunity .
And we are truly honored as Project South to be representing Ms. Wooten along with the Government Accountability Project .
She ’ s truly a hero for telling us about this outrageous conduct on behalf of the facility .
So , you know , we don ’ t really know very much about the death of Cipriano Chávez Álvarez , a 61-year-old man .
He was a Mexican national .
As far as I know , ICE has not even issued @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But what we do know is that this marks the third death at the Stewart Detention Center , also a corporate-owned facility , during the pandemic .
So , three men have already died of COVID-19 or complications related to COVID-19 .
And two of them were elderly , including Mr. Cipriano Chávez Álvarez .
And the other one , Santiago Baten-Oxlaj , was a 34-year-old man who had diabetes .
So , the question is : Why would ICE continue to hold people who are elderly or have preexisting conditions in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deadly one ?
You know , seven people have died at the Stewart Detention Center just in the past three years , two of them by suicide after being placed in solitary for prolonged periods of time .
So , you know , those of us on the ground who have called for this facility , Stewart , as well as Irwin , to be shut down for a long time , the question that we have is : What else would it take for decision makers to finally move and do something @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tragedies at these facilities ?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : Well , Azadeh , we played at the beginning of this segment a clip of some women at the facility talking about the conditions back in April .
Could you talk about the context of that and what happened to those women after this video got out ?
AZADEH SHAHSHAHANI : Sure .
So , instead of addressing their concerns and actually taking care of the people inside to make sure that this deadly disease does not spread , the facility , run by a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ retaliate against all the women who were involved in the making of that video in any way .
So they placed them in solitary confinement for a number of days .
And that led to extreme emotional and mental health damage for all of them .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : And one of the most egregious points raised in the complaint of Dawn Wooten is this whole issue of whether there had been sterilizations of women occurring at Irwin without their consent .
Could you talk about what your organization knows about this and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Sure .
So , yeah , thanks to Ms .
Dawn Wooten and her courage in coming out about all of this , and , you know , the documentation and the complaint that we were able to release , that has really opened the door to a lot of lawyers coming forward , a lot of immigrants coming forward .
You know , we are in touch with lawyers , trying to track down women all over the world who have been at this facility and have suffered some type of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it is truly egregious that immigrant women at a truly vulnerable situation at this facility , at the mercy of ICE and the LaSalle corporation , were treated in this fashion .
And so , you know , what we do know is that there were hysterectomies .
There were other procedures that were done on women without their consent .
And I would like to address ICE ’ s response in terms of , you know , the number of hysterectomies .
First of all , what they said is that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ referred for hysterectomies .
You know , part of what we ’ re saying is that , based on what we know about what was happening and what this doctor was doing , people may have been referred for something else , you know , a minor issue , like what happened with Pauline Binam .
You know , she went in for a minor issue , and then , the next thing she knew , her fallopian tube was taken out , that that led to a sterilization .
So , you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happened at the doctor ’ s office in terms of the procedures ?
And secondly , you know , those of us who have been doing immigrants ’ rights work for a long time know that ICE has no moral credibility whatsoever , and anything that they say should be taken with a grain of salt .
And also , there are assertions about shredding of medical information at this facility , and so that also shines a doubt on what ICE is asserting here .
And lastly , they are themselves saying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to determine the true number of gynecological procedures that were done on women .
So , you know , that is why we issued the complaint .
There is absolutely a need for an independent and thorough investigation by the Department of Homeland Security ’ s Office of Inspector General and by Congress , and we need to shut this place down .
AMY GOODMAN : So , we reported earlier Tina Vasquez at Prism and other outlets , including The New York Times , say that the doctor is an obstetrics and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has an office in the city of Douglas near the ICE jail .
It ’ s been reported that he and other doctors previously paid half a million dollars in a settlement of a civil federal Medicare fraud allegation years ago .
What do you know about him ?
You have ICE Dr. Ada Rivera , the medical director of ICE Health Services Corporation , saying the reports would be investigated , but that the agency , quote , “ vehemently disputes the implication that detainees are used for experimental medical procedures.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , in particular ?
And overall , are more doctors involved , Azadeh ?
AZADEH SHAHSHAHANI : So , what the media has reported about Dr. Amin — and I should clarify that Project South , the Government Accountability Project and our client , Ms. Wooten , are not able to confirm the identity of the doctor .
But what the media has reported about Dr. Amin is that this person was not even board-certified , which raises the question about the level of care that ICE has for the people in its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , over a number of years , to a physician who was not even board-certified .
And what the media has reported is that , you know , in addition to the settlement that you mentioned with the Department of Justice , Dr. Amin was also involved in a series of lawsuits .
So , that all remains to be investigated .
You know , we do not know for sure at this point whether there were other physicians involved , in terms of what was happening at the facility , in terms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ know , that all needs to be investigated .
And again , that is why we filed the report .
AMY GOODMAN : Is he still operating at the jail ?
AZADEH SHAHSHAHANI : From what we know , they have stopped referring people to Dr. Amin , but that happened very , very late in the game .
AMY GOODMAN : Dawn Wooten , I know you have to leave , and we so appreciate you taking this time .
Do you fear for your own safety as you speak out ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ prison , the immigrant women who speak out ?
DAWN WOOTEN : Safety is an issue .
Haven ’ t gotten any , you know , wild threats or anybody saying , you know , that , “ Hey , we ’ re going to come after you.
” But at the same time , it ’ s an issue , because any time that you hold morally and ethically and you do what ’ s right and correct , you have to realize that now I ’ ve become a target .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ are there at the facility , yes , I empathize with those ladies that are speaking out at the facility , because we live in the real world , and we process things in the real world differently .
So , there is — as women , we ’ re supposed to remain silent , according to the world , and we ’ re not supposed to have a voice .
So , in speaking out , I am concerned for them and for how they ’ re going to be treated and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I ’ d also like to ask Azadeh Shahshahani — a lot of people don ’ t realize still , unfortunately , that the people held in detention , in ICE detention , that this is — are largely there on civil issues and are awaiting hearings in their cases .
They are not criminals , yet they are treated , in large part , by the government ’ s detention centers as criminals .
AZADEH SHAHSHAHANI : Juan , you know , I should say that , obviously , regardless of what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of , or not , in this really corrupt criminal legal process , obviously , everybody is entitled to human rights , fundamental human rights , and we should be fighting for everybody ’ s human dignity the same .
It is true that these facilities are civil detention centers , and the people held in these facilities , many of them , are awaiting deportation proceedings , or they may be asylum seekers .
You know , they may be afraid of torture in their home countries , and that is why @ @ @ @ @ @ @ try to find refuge in this country .
And instead , you know , the U.S. government places them in these horrid places where they are denied basic human rights in terms of medical care , clean water , good food , edible food .
And when they complain , the U.S. government and the private prison corporations retaliate against them by , you know , using tear gas in some cases , placing them in solitary confinement and trying to basically shut down their voices .
AMY GOODMAN : And the significance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ investigation into all of this ?
I mean , you had Houston Congressmember Sheila Jackson Lee , you have Pramila Jayapal — before she was a congressmember , major immigrant rights activist in Seattle — leading this charge and getting 160 congressmembers to sign on , which led to Pauline Binam being taken off the plane as it was about to take off in Chicago .
What do you want to see come out of this investigation ?
AZADEH SHAHSHAHANI : Yeah , that is huge .
You know , especially , again @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have been calling for a number of years on Congress to act , and they did not , even after people started dying at Stewart .
They didn ’ t do anything significant .
And then , as a result of the national outrage last week , we are glad that finally Congress is paying attention .
We have been contacted by multiple congressional staffers about the complaint .
And so , you know , we do hope that there is continued pressure on the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and independent investigation into violations at the facility .
And , you know , there ’ s been a lot of attention on the evils that the doctor did , but the problem goes beyond this one doctor .
These were people in the custody of the U.S. government .
You know , at the end of the day , the buck stops with ICE and with the U.S. government .
And so they need to be held accountable , as well as the private prison corporation .
And what we are demanding @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
AMY GOODMAN : Azadeh Shahshahani , I want to thank you so much for being with us , legal and advocacy director at Project South .
And , Dawn Wooten , thanks so much for joining us , licensed practical nurse who filed a whistleblower complaint about the abuses at the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia .
We will continue to cover this issue .
When we come back , we ’ ll look at Belly of the Beast , a new documentary on California ’ s dark history of forced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Stay with us .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: The official death toll from COVID-19 in the United States is just hitting 200,000, though the real number is almost certainly far higher. Some public health experts say infections could spike this fall and winter and double the death count by the end of the year.
As the virus continues to spread, we look now at allegations that Immigration and Customs Enforcement helped spread the virus through medical neglect and abuse in ICE jails. On Monday, ICE confirmed the 20th person to die in its detention in fiscal year 2020, making it one of the deadliest periods in the agency’s history. Cipriano Chávez Álvarez was a 61-year-old Mexican immigrant who had been held at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, and died in a nearby hospital. His passing marks the third COVID-19 fatality at that jail and the eighth known COVID death in ICE custody. ICE says nearly 5,700 prisoners nationwide have been infected with COVID.
This comes as an explosive complaint filed on behalf of a whistleblower nurse accuses a different ICE jail in Georgia, the Irwin County Detention Center, of failing to protect both prisoners and employees from the virus. The whistleblower, Dawn Wooten, a nurse, was a nurse at the jail. She said it failed to adhere to coronavirus safety protocols. She also alleges a large number of unwanted hysterectomies had been performed on prisoners by a local doctor known as “the uterus collector.”
The complaint does not name a specific staff doctor, but lawyers for several people detained there have told Tina Vasquez at Prism and other news outlets, including The New York Times, that he’s an obstetrics and gynecology specialist named Mahendra Amin, who has an office in the city of Douglas near the ICE jail. It’s been reported that Amin and other doctors previously paid half a million dollars in a settlement of a civil federal Medicare fraud allegation.
The Intercept reported that three prisoners said Amin had performed at least 20 hysterectomies over six years. One said while Amin was excising a cyst from her ovary, he removed part of a fallopian tube without her consent. Amin told The Intercept that, quote, “Everything is wrong” about the complaint.
ICE said in a statement that only two prisoners at Irwin County had undergone hysterectomies since 2018, and has not confirmed how many other potentially sterilizing surgeries were done, such as tubal ligations.
Dawn Wooten will join us in a minute to describe what she saw. She spoke out after nine women detained in Irwin managed to film and have uploaded to YouTube in April. The women wore makeshift masks and held signs that said, “There are sick people here,” “We are not criminals,” and “Please help.” One by one, they came forward to tell their stories.
IRWIN PRISONER 1: [translated] I work in intake. I see the people who enter. I see how the guards work. All I saw is that they ask people to leave when they enter — men, women, whoever. They don’t attend to them. They don’t ask them the necessary questions to diagnose them. We are at risk. They don’t give us anything to cover ourselves so that we can protect ourselves. I was the first person that got sick. I went to the clinic, and it lasted no more than five minutes. They didn’t give me necessary resources. They simply told me, “You’re fine. Go back to your cell.”
IRWIN PRISONER 2: [translated] We need protection, please. All we want is for people to listen to their conscience, their hearts, because we are so many mothers in this place who are suffering so much, so many humiliations, for the love of God. Why can’t ICE understand? Why do we have to wait more than a year to get a court date?
AMY GOODMAN: That was April. On Monday, Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee issued a report that concluded immigrants in ICE jails systematically receive inadequate medical, dental and mental healthcare, and face solitary confinement as a punishment for speaking out. As coronavirus cases continue to surge inside ICE prisons, the report notes, quote, “The spread of COVID-19 has further highlighted how the failures to meet these standards of care are a matter of life and death.”
This comes as at least 160 Democratic members of Congress sent a letter to the inspector general demanding an investigation into the reports a doctor in Georgia was performing hysterectomies on immigrant women at Irwin without their consent. This is Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey speaking Monday about whistleblower Dawn Wooten’s allegations.
REP. BONNIE WATSON COLEMAN: My heart has been broken by some of the things that I’ve read over the last couple of weeks. I’m definitely very concerned about what we heard from the whistleblower, Dawn Wooten, about the barbaric treatment of detainees at Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia. And if these allegations are true, this is really probably one of the most inhumane things I have heard coming out of an administration that I think has very little low — bottom to its low.
AMY GOODMAN: All of this comes as ICE has now temporarily halted the deportation of Pauline Binam, a Cameroonian mother who says she was involuntarily sterilized while detained in Georgia. Binam was already on the plane Wednesday when her deportation was stopped. She has lived in the United States since the age of 2.
For more, we’re joined from Atlanta by Dawn Wooten, the licensed practical nurse who filed this widely discussed whistleblower complaint to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General about abuses at the privately run Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia. Also with us in Atlanta, Azadeh Shahshahani, legal and advocacy director at Project South, which helped file the complaint.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Dawn Wooten, let’s begin with you on this issue of forced sterilization, of hysterectomies, that is included in this complaint. Can you explain what the women mean when they talk about a “uterus collector”?
DAWN WOOTEN: I’ve had several women to come to me over the course of time. And in my last attendance there at Irwin County Detention Center, I had a couple of women to come to me and say, you know, “Every time we go out, or every time we go to this place, in talking with other detained women there, that they had this in common.” They would talk about him being “the uterus collector.”
And in hearing it, you know, you don’t know what to say or how to respond. But that was the term that they had given at the time, was that he’s “the uterus collector.” Her actual question was, “What does he do? What does he go around — collecting everybody’s uterus?” You know, it’s jaw-dropping. There’s really not a response to give them for that terminology, but that’s the terminology that was given to me.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Dawn Wooten, how many of these women were you able to talk to directly? And were some of them giving you secondhand information that they had heard from other women in the center?
DAWN WOOTEN: Yes. They become family. Whenever they cohabitate together, they build what they call families inside of the dormitories. And they share experiences, and they share life stories there. And they become really close. So, in coming into, in hearing, you know, they had devised that term, “the uterus collector.”
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: You’ve also raised, in your complaint, the situation in terms of the treatment of detainees, in general, about — in reference to COVID. Could you talk about the direct experiences that you had with how the facility was dealing with COVID patients?
DAWN WOOTEN: Yes. In March, whenever we had first come across COVID-19, the first case that was there was not a case. You know, it was like it was invisible. It was silenced. You know, we were not to share it with other employees. We were not to share it with outside. We were not to share it amongst ourselves. There was a time to where I was told that you don’t inform the officers that this person is COVID-positive. You know, in the beginning, they didn’t take wearing masks seriously. We didn’t have proper PPE in the beginning. It was like a cover-up. It never existed. And as time progressed inside of the facility and there were more cases that systemically appeared, we were still at a place there to where you hear — it was unbelievable — “We didn’t have it. Don’t you talk about it. Don’t you discuss it. That’s not true.”
I am a mother with an underlying condition. I have underlying conditions. And once the terms came to, “Hey, there’s COVID-19 inside of this facility,” they were not reporting to the health department. They were not reporting to the CDC. So, there were cases in the beginning that were not accounted for. They were not justified. And I became in fear not just for myself, but for the lives of others that were around me, as well as my children.
We had N95s. I received one in March. I asked for one again in May, and I was told that “You’re going to have to put this in a bag. You were given one in March.” And until July the 2nd, last day at the facility, I still hadn’t received an N95, that I knew was in the building.
And I had a detainee to — someone stopped me in the hall and said, “Can you check this man’s temp?” I went to check the detainee’s temp. It was 101.8. I went, and I concurred with my supervisor. And one nurse said at the shift change it was 97.3. You know, going back to check it a second time, it’s 101.8. He had a valid temp. I was told that they wrap themselves in covering, has to depend on what time of day. “Hand him some ibuprofen.” That’s not professional nursing. That is not something that I can do. He was not tested.
You have several detainees that would come up, and they would be symptomatic. But I was told that everybody reads the news, everybody sees the news, they know how to present the symptoms coming across the news. It was inhumane. And it was not justifiably correct. I live by you treat people how you want to be treated. You don’t treat people as if they don’t exist. And they were ignored.
The sanitation, we didn’t have anything to sanitize with. There was no hand sanitizer. We were not wiping down. Six-feet distance — there was not six-feet distance. We were all a couple of nurses in a room. And not only were detainees positive, but there were also employees positive. It wasn’t taken seriously. And I feared for my life and the lives of those that are around.
AMY GOODMAN: You, yourself, Dawn Wooten, suffer from sickle cell. You voiced your complaints about the lack of protection for staff, like you, a nurse, as well as the prisoners. Can you talk about whether or not you think that was related to your demotion?
DAWN WOOTEN: I do. I have sickle cell. I had to have a minute procedure. And when I took it to my supervisor, I was told, “Even though you’re going to be COVID-tested, you can still come to work. Wear a mask.” I was symptomatic. I went to the physician earlier on in this COVID case at Irwin County Detention Center. I was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection. I had fluid on my lung. I was taking inhalation or breathing treatments. I was on antibiotics. I was running a temp. I had diarrhea. I had headaches. I had chest pain. I had a cough, a raspy cough. I was told I still could present to work because my test confirmed that I was negative, but I was symptomatic.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to bring Azadeh Shahshahani into the conversation, because we just reported that another person has died in an ICE prison, not at Irwin, where Nurse Wooten worked, but in a separate facility. And I was wondering if you can tell us the latest news on him.
AZADEH SHAHSHAHANI: Sure, Amy. Thank you very much for having me.
First, I wanted to say that, as Project South, we’re part of a movement that believes that systematic and state violence is not to be tolerated in any form, so whether it’s ICE caging and harming immigrants or cops murdering Black people in the streets with impunity. And we are truly honored as Project South to be representing Ms. Wooten along with the Government Accountability Project. She’s truly a hero for telling us about this outrageous conduct on behalf of the facility.
So, you know, we don’t really know very much about the death of Cipriano Chávez Álvarez, a 61-year-old man. He was a Mexican national. As far as I know, ICE has not even issued a press statement at this point. But what we do know is that this marks the third death at the Stewart Detention Center, also a corporate-owned facility, during the pandemic. So, three men have already died of COVID-19 or complications related to COVID-19. And two of them were elderly, including Mr. Cipriano Chávez Álvarez. And the other one, Santiago Baten-Oxlaj, was a 34-year-old man who had diabetes.
So, the question is: Why would ICE continue to hold people who are elderly or have preexisting conditions in a facility that we already know is a deadly one? You know, seven people have died at the Stewart Detention Center just in the past three years, two of them by suicide after being placed in solitary for prolonged periods of time. So, you know, those of us on the ground who have called for this facility, Stewart, as well as Irwin, to be shut down for a long time, the question that we have is: What else would it take for decision makers to finally move and do something about this, before we see additional tragedies at these facilities?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Azadeh, we played at the beginning of this segment a clip of some women at the facility talking about the conditions back in April. Could you talk about the context of that and what happened to those women after this video got out?
AZADEH SHAHSHAHANI: Sure. So, instead of addressing their concerns and actually taking care of the people inside to make sure that this deadly disease does not spread, the facility, run by a private corporation, LaSalle, proceeded to retaliate against all the women who were involved in the making of that video in any way. So they placed them in solitary confinement for a number of days. And that led to extreme emotional and mental health damage for all of them.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And one of the most egregious points raised in the complaint of Dawn Wooten is this whole issue of whether there had been sterilizations of women occurring at Irwin without their consent. Could you talk about what your organization knows about this and how extensive it is?
AZADEH SHAHSHAHANI: Sure. So, yeah, thanks to Ms. Dawn Wooten and her courage in coming out about all of this, and, you know, the documentation and the complaint that we were able to release, that has really opened the door to a lot of lawyers coming forward, a lot of immigrants coming forward. You know, we are in touch with lawyers, trying to track down women all over the world who have been at this facility and have suffered some type of violation to their body. I mean, it is truly egregious that immigrant women at a truly vulnerable situation at this facility, at the mercy of ICE and the LaSalle corporation, were treated in this fashion. And so, you know, what we do know is that there were hysterectomies. There were other procedures that were done on women without their consent.
And I would like to address ICE’s response in terms of, you know, the number of hysterectomies. First of all, what they said is that they know of only two people being referred for hysterectomies. You know, part of what we’re saying is that, based on what we know about what was happening and what this doctor was doing, people may have been referred for something else, you know, a minor issue, like what happened with Pauline Binam. You know, she went in for a minor issue, and then, the next thing she knew, her fallopian tube was taken out, that that led to a sterilization. So, you know, the question is: What happened at the doctor’s office in terms of the procedures?
And secondly, you know, those of us who have been doing immigrants’ rights work for a long time know that ICE has no moral credibility whatsoever, and anything that they say should be taken with a grain of salt. And also, there are assertions about shredding of medical information at this facility, and so that also shines a doubt on what ICE is asserting here. And lastly, they are themselves saying that they haven’t been able to determine the true number of gynecological procedures that were done on women.
So, you know, that is why we issued the complaint. There is absolutely a need for an independent and thorough investigation by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General and by Congress, and we need to shut this place down.
AMY GOODMAN: So, we reported earlier Tina Vasquez at Prism and other outlets, including The New York Times, say that the doctor is an obstetrics and gynecology specialist named Mahendra Amin, who has an office in the city of Douglas near the ICE jail. It’s been reported that he and other doctors previously paid half a million dollars in a settlement of a civil federal Medicare fraud allegation years ago. What do you know about him? You have ICE Dr. Ada Rivera, the medical director of ICE Health Services Corporation, saying the reports would be investigated, but that the agency, quote, “vehemently disputes the implication that detainees are used for experimental medical procedures.” What do know about Dr. Mahendra Amin, in particular? And overall, are more doctors involved, Azadeh?
AZADEH SHAHSHAHANI: So, what the media has reported about Dr. Amin — and I should clarify that Project South, the Government Accountability Project and our client, Ms. Wooten, are not able to confirm the identity of the doctor. But what the media has reported about Dr. Amin is that this person was not even board-certified, which raises the question about the level of care that ICE has for the people in its custody, that they would send people, over a number of years, to a physician who was not even board-certified. And what the media has reported is that, you know, in addition to the settlement that you mentioned with the Department of Justice, Dr. Amin was also involved in a series of lawsuits. So, that all remains to be investigated. You know, we do not know for sure at this point whether there were other physicians involved, in terms of what was happening at the facility, in terms of referring people to him. You know, that all needs to be investigated. And again, that is why we filed the report.
AMY GOODMAN: Is he still operating at the jail?
AZADEH SHAHSHAHANI: From what we know, they have stopped referring people to Dr. Amin, but that happened very, very late in the game.
AMY GOODMAN: Dawn Wooten, I know you have to leave, and we so appreciate you taking this time. Do you fear for your own safety as you speak out? And what happens to those inside the prison, the immigrant women who speak out?
DAWN WOOTEN: Safety is an issue. Haven’t gotten any, you know, wild threats or anybody saying, you know, that, “Hey, we’re going to come after you.” But at the same time, it’s an issue, because any time that you hold morally and ethically and you do what’s right and correct, you have to realize that now I’ve become a target. The voice — and the ladies that are there at the facility, yes, I empathize with those ladies that are speaking out at the facility, because we live in the real world, and we process things in the real world differently. So, there is — as women, we’re supposed to remain silent, according to the world, and we’re not supposed to have a voice. So, in speaking out, I am concerned for them and for how they’re going to be treated and isolated.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, I’d also like to ask Azadeh Shahshahani — a lot of people don’t realize still, unfortunately, that the people held in detention, in ICE detention, that this is — are largely there on civil issues and are awaiting hearings in their cases. They are not criminals, yet they are treated, in large part, by the government’s detention centers as criminals.
AZADEH SHAHSHAHANI: Juan, you know, I should say that, obviously, regardless of what offense a person may have been accused of, or not, in this really corrupt criminal legal process, obviously, everybody is entitled to human rights, fundamental human rights, and we should be fighting for everybody’s human dignity the same.
It is true that these facilities are civil detention centers, and the people held in these facilities, many of them, are awaiting deportation proceedings, or they may be asylum seekers. You know, they may be afraid of torture in their home countries, and that is why they fled to the U.S., to try to find refuge in this country. And instead, you know, the U.S. government places them in these horrid places where they are denied basic human rights in terms of medical care, clean water, good food, edible food. And when they complain, the U.S. government and the private prison corporations retaliate against them by, you know, using tear gas in some cases, placing them in solitary confinement and trying to basically shut down their voices.
AMY GOODMAN: And the significance of now the House calling for an investigation into all of this? I mean, you had Houston Congressmember Sheila Jackson Lee, you have Pramila Jayapal — before she was a congressmember, major immigrant rights activist in Seattle — leading this charge and getting 160 congressmembers to sign on, which led to Pauline Binam being taken off the plane as it was about to take off in Chicago. What do you want to see come out of this investigation?
AZADEH SHAHSHAHANI: Yeah, that is huge. You know, especially, again, those of us on the ground have been calling for a number of years on Congress to act, and they did not, even after people started dying at Stewart. They didn’t do anything significant. And then, as a result of the national outrage last week, we are glad that finally Congress is paying attention. We have been contacted by multiple congressional staffers about the complaint. And so, you know, we do hope that there is continued pressure on the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General to ensure that they conduct a thorough and independent investigation into violations at the facility.
And, you know, there’s been a lot of attention on the evils that the doctor did, but the problem goes beyond this one doctor. These were people in the custody of the U.S. government. You know, at the end of the day, the buck stops with ICE and with the U.S. government. And so they need to be held accountable, as well as the private prison corporation. And what we are demanding is that the facility be shut down.
AMY GOODMAN: Azadeh Shahshahani, I want to thank you so much for being with us, legal and advocacy director at Project South. And, Dawn Wooten, thanks so much for joining us, licensed practical nurse who filed a whistleblower complaint about the abuses at the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia. We will continue to cover this issue.
When we come back, we’ll look at Belly of the Beast, a new documentary on California’s dark history of forced sterilizations inside women’s prisons. Stay with us.


democracynow--2020-09-22--Headlines for September 22, 2020

Headlines for September 22, 2020

In Washington , D.C. , the Republican race to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is running full speed .
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is charging ahead with plans to vote on President Trump ’ s nominee .
Trump said Monday he would announce his nominee by week ’ s end .
McConnell refused to hold confirmation hearings in 2016 for President Obama ’ s nominee , nine months before the election .
So far , only two Republican senators — Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine — have said they do not support voting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ four Republicans to join them to block the nomination .
On Monday , Democrats were dealt a major setback when Republican Senators Cory Gardner — who is trailing Democrat John Hickenlooper in the Colorado Senate race — and Chuck Grassley of Iowa both supported holding a vote on a nominee before the election .
Trump appeared by phone on Fox News Monday and falsely claimed that Ginsburg ’ s dying wish — that she not be replaced until a new president is installed — was a Democratic hoax .
Justice Ginsburg is scheduled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Friday , the first woman to receive the honor .
Before this , she will lie in repose at the Supreme Court for two days , outside due to pandemic measures .
She will be interred at a private service next week at Arlington National Cemetery , where her husband , Martin Ginsburg , was also buried in 2010 .

In Washington, D.C., the Republican race to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is running full speed. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is charging ahead with plans to vote on President Trump’s nominee.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: “The Senate has more than sufficient time to process a nomination. History and precedent make that perfectly clear.”
Trump said Monday he would announce his nominee by week’s end. McConnell refused to hold confirmation hearings in 2016 for President Obama’s nominee, nine months before the election. So far, only two Republican senators — Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine — have said they do not support voting before the November election.
Democrats need four Republicans to join them to block the nomination. On Monday, Democrats were dealt a major setback when Republican Senators Cory Gardner — who is trailing Democrat John Hickenlooper in the Colorado Senate race — and Chuck Grassley of Iowa both supported holding a vote on a nominee before the election.
Trump appeared by phone on Fox News Monday and falsely claimed that Ginsburg’s dying wish — that she not be replaced until a new president is installed — was a Democratic hoax.
President Donald Trump: “I don’t know that she said that. Or was that written out by Adam Schiff” —
Ainsley Earhardt: “It was reported.”
President Donald Trump: — “and Schumer and Pelosi? I would be more inclined to the second.”
Justice Ginsburg is scheduled to lie in state in the Capitol Friday, the first woman to receive the honor. Before this, she will lie in repose at the Supreme Court for two days, outside due to pandemic measures. She will be interred at a private service next week at Arlington National Cemetery, where her husband, Martin Ginsburg, was also buried in 2010.


democracynow--2020-09-23--No Más Bebés: ICE Hysterectomy Scandal Recalls 1970s LA, When a Hospital Sterilized Chicana Patients

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : In Georgia , immigration authorities have stopped sending immigrant female detainees held in the Irwin County Detention Center to a gynecologist accused of sterilizing the women prisoners without their consent .
Dr. Mahendra Amin reportedly saw at least 60 women detained at the ICE jail , which is run by the private prison company LaSalle Corrections .
On Tuesday , we interviewed the whistleblower nurse , Dawn Wooten , who worked at Irwin and said that women held there called Dr. Amin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Well , for our next guest , the news that a doctor had given immigrant women unwanted sterilizations sounded eerily familiar .
Virginia Espino is the producer of the documentary No Más Bebés , or No More Babies .
This is the film ’ s trailer .
AMY GOODMAN : That ’ s the trailer for No Más Bebés , No More Babies .
It aired on PBS ’ s Independent Lens in 2016 , tells the story of how some 46 years ago a whistleblower doctor spoke out about a large @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Chicana patients at the Los Angeles County Hospital .
Dr. Bernard Rosenfeld observed many women who came to the hospital for emergency C-section deliveries left the hospital sterilized .
Ten women of the women filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court in a case known as Madrigal v. Quilligan .
In this clip from the film , we hear from plaintiff María Hurtado .
AMY GOODMAN : One of the women who was sterilized without her consent in the ’ 70s at the Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center .
For more , we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s producer , lead historian .
She ’ s also a lecturer with the UCLA Department of Chicana , Chicano and Central American Studies .
She made the film with her friend , the Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Renee Tajima-Peña .
Before then , the women in the lawsuit had not had much opportunity to describe their experiences .
Welcome to Democracy Now !
, Professor Espino .
It ’ s great to have you with us .
If you can lay out what happened and what this lawsuit was about and what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It was — the events occurred in the early 1970s , when women would go to the L.A. County Hospital for emergency cesareans .
So , the L.A. County Hospital wasn ’ t a place where people would go and plan to deliver their child .
In some cases , you did have people opting for that as a safe place , but you had other people going there because they were in pain , in trauma , they were bleeding , they were having complications .
And that was the case of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ file a lawsuit against the hospital .
They would go to the hospital for an emergency cesarean in full labor .
And at that time , they were approached by hospital staff , sometimes doctors , sometimes nurses , sometimes social workers , about signing consent forms for tubal ligation .
Quite often they did not understand the terminology .
They did not , in some cases , understand the language .
Many of them spoke primarily Spanish .
And in some cases , they were just under duress from pain from labor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ quite know what was happening to them .
In one case , for example , Melvina Hernández went for three years after her tubal ligation wearing an IUD , because she did not know she had that surgery performed on her .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : And , Professor Espino , could you talk somewhat about the difficulty you had in actually documenting what had happened , and the problems you had in accessing records of what had occurred ?
As I mentioned in yesterday ’ s show , this kind of stuff had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ late 1940s and early 1950s , this mass sterilization of Puerto Rican women of childbearing age on the island .
But again , finding the documentation was always difficult .
VIRGINIA ESPINO : Well , in this case , I think it ’ s unique , because you had the explosion of the Chicana and Chicano movement occurring at the same time that these sterilizations were made public .
So you had people conscious , consciously saving these records .
Professor Carlos Vélez-Ibañez donated his expert witness testimony to UCLA Archives , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And he made available court testimony .
He made available — some of the audio that you hear in the film was what he recorded when he was an expert witness .
He actually interviewed the women in the 1970s , and he saved all that material and donated it to the library .
It was harder to get the court records — excuse me .
It was harder to get the court records , because they had been lost , they had been misplaced , they had been misfiled .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hear what ’ s been going on at the Irwin Detention Center in Georgia now , putting what ’ s happening currently in context from the history that you ’ ve mined here , could you make some connections there ?
VIRGINIA ESPINO : Absolutely .
It feels like definitely the Georgia case is mirroring what is taking place — or , what had taken place in Los Angeles .
You have people not fully understanding the procedures that are being performed on them .
You have miscommunication .
You have a code @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a whistleblower who is breaking that code of silence .
But at the L.A. County Hospital in the 1970s , you had a code of silence where people did not speak out against this abuse .
People normalized approaching women while they were in labor , and asking them to sign over their fertility .
You know , that was a normal practice that was taking place on a day-to-day basis .
And nobody — AMY GOODMAN : And , of course , the consent form was in English .
While they lost @ @ @ @ @ @ @ before a jury , but before one judge , a white male judge .
AMY GOODMAN : Talk about the changes that resulted from the bravery of these women coming forward .
VIRGINIA ESPINO : It really rallied the community .
You had protests .
You had the newspaper covering this issue at a time that it didn ’ t really cover the ethnic Mexican community .
You had a waiting period implemented so that it became illegal to approach a woman while she was in labor regarding tubal ligation .
So , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ You also had recommendations or legislation put into place that required consent forms be in the language of the patient .
So , some of those were monumental changes that occurred because of this lawsuit and because these women came forward .
AMY GOODMAN : Well , Virginia Espino , we have to leave it there , but we encourage people to see this amazing documentary , producer and lead historian for the film No Más Bebés , No More Babies , lecturer with the UCLA Department of Chicana , Chicano and Central @ @ @ @ @ @ @ PBS Independent Lens in 2016 , is now available on demand on Vimeo in both English and Spanish .
We will link to it .
That does it for our show .
I ’ m Amy Goodman , with Juan González .
Stay safe .
Wear a mask .
Save lives .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: In Georgia, immigration authorities have stopped sending immigrant female detainees held in the Irwin County Detention Center to a gynecologist accused of sterilizing the women prisoners without their consent. Dr. Mahendra Amin reportedly saw at least 60 women detained at the ICE jail, which is run by the private prison company LaSalle Corrections. On Tuesday, we interviewed the whistleblower nurse, Dawn Wooten, who worked at Irwin and said that women held there called Dr. Amin a, quote, “uterus collector.”
Well, for our next guest, the news that a doctor had given immigrant women unwanted sterilizations sounded eerily familiar. Virginia Espino is the producer of the documentary No Más Bebés, or No More Babies. This is the film’s trailer.
NARRATION: In East Los Angeles during the late 1960s and early 1970s, women were going to the county hospital to give birth. Some went home sterilized.
MARÍA HURTADO: [translated] There are still beds here. Look. Inside I feel pain, remembering.
DAUGHTER: [translated] What makes you sad being here?
MARÍA HURTADO: [translated] Who knows why? But I do feel sad.
DAUGHTER: [translated] Oh Mama.
REPORTER 1: This baby boy became a citizen one minute ago. His mother does not have immigration papers.
REPORTER 2: Were told they should be sterilized to save taxpayers welfare money.
REPORTER 3: Something drastic must be done about population growth.
CONSUELO HERMOSILLO: The doctor walked in and said, “We cut your tubes.” And I said, “Why?” He goes, “Well, you signed for it.” I said, “Me?” I go, “I don’t remember nothing.” And I didn’t tell my family. I didn’t tell anybody.
DR. BERNARD ROSENFELD: They were extremely fearful, being told that you need an emergency cesarean section and you can feel blood pouring down your leg, at that time signing a consent for tubal ligation.
REPORTER 4: This is the emergency department of Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center.
ANTONIA HERNÁNDEZ: Some of them signed right in the midst of labor. Some of them don’t even remember signing. Here I, as this young lawyer, am for the first time telling them, “Do you know that you’ve been sterilized?”
We are suing HEW for noncompliance or nonenforcement, nonmonitoring of the sterilization regulation.
It was just the beginning of the emergence of the civil rights movement in the Latino community.
GLORIA MOLINA: We were talking about abortion rights, all of the issues of feminism at that time. The idea that somebody could be forcibly sterilized seemed like something out of a mental institution out of the 1920s.
DR. MICHAEL KREITZER: To claim that we’re part of a greater goal of sterilizing the Mexican population that immigrates to Los Angeles, I mean, I’m offended by that. That’s not what we did.
CONSUELO HERMOSILLO: The way I felt when I was young, it doesn’t change the way I feel in my heart now that I’m older. But it’s there all the time. It’s like when you bury somebody: You’re always going to carry it on your head.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s the trailer for No Más Bebés, No More Babies. It aired on PBS’s Independent Lens in 2016, tells the story of how some 46 years ago a whistleblower doctor spoke out about a large number of tubal ligations performed on mostly Chicana patients at the Los Angeles County Hospital. Dr. Bernard Rosenfeld observed many women who came to the hospital for emergency C-section deliveries left the hospital sterilized. Ten women of the women filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court in a case known as Madrigal v. Quilligan. In this clip from the film, we hear from plaintiff María Hurtado.
MARÍA HURTADO: [translated] That’s what I heard them saying: “No more! The Mexican women are having too many kids!” And they were having to figure out a way to slow it down.
CONSUELO HERMOSILLO: You speak English, they treat you one way. You don’t speak English, they treat you another way. That’s how I see it.
MARÍA HURTADO: [translated] The only thing that the doctor said was, “Mama, Mama,” because he wouldn’t say, “Sign here or here.” They couldn’t say anything. They only signaled, “Mama.”
AMY GOODMAN: One of the women who was sterilized without her consent in the ’70s at the Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center.
For more, we go to Virginia Espino, the film’s producer, lead historian. She’s also a lecturer with the UCLA Department of Chicana, Chicano and Central American Studies. She made the film with her friend, the Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Renee Tajima-Peña. Before then, the women in the lawsuit had not had much opportunity to describe their experiences.
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Professor Espino. It’s great to have you with us. If you can lay out what happened and what this lawsuit was about and what came of it?
VIRGINIA ESPINO: It was — the events occurred in the early 1970s, when women would go to the L.A. County Hospital for emergency cesareans. So, the L.A. County Hospital wasn’t a place where people would go and plan to deliver their child. In some cases, you did have people opting for that as a safe place, but you had other people going there because they were in pain, in trauma, they were bleeding, they were having complications.
And that was the case of the Madrigal 10, who would eventually file a lawsuit against the hospital. They would go to the hospital for an emergency cesarean in full labor. And at that time, they were approached by hospital staff, sometimes doctors, sometimes nurses, sometimes social workers, about signing consent forms for tubal ligation. Quite often they did not understand the terminology. They did not, in some cases, understand the language. Many of them spoke primarily Spanish. And in some cases, they were just under duress from pain from labor, and so they didn’t quite know what was happening to them. In one case, for example, Melvina Hernández went for three years after her tubal ligation wearing an IUD, because she did not know she had that surgery performed on her.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Professor Espino, could you talk somewhat about the difficulty you had in actually documenting what had happened, and the problems you had in accessing records of what had occurred? As I mentioned in yesterday’s show, this kind of stuff had been happening in Puerto Rico in the late 1940s and early 1950s, this mass sterilization of Puerto Rican women of childbearing age on the island. But again, finding the documentation was always difficult.
VIRGINIA ESPINO: Well, in this case, I think it’s unique, because you had the explosion of the Chicana and Chicano movement occurring at the same time that these sterilizations were made public. So you had people conscious, consciously saving these records.
Professor Carlos Vélez-Ibañez donated his expert witness testimony to UCLA Archives, the Chicana and Chicano Research Center there. And he made available court testimony. He made available — some of the audio that you hear in the film was what he recorded when he was an expert witness. He actually interviewed the women in the 1970s, and he saved all that material and donated it to the library.
It was harder to get the court records — excuse me. It was harder to get the court records, because they had been lost, they had been misplaced, they had been misfiled.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And in terms of when you hear what’s been going on at the Irwin Detention Center in Georgia now, putting what’s happening currently in context from the history that you’ve mined here, could you make some connections there?
VIRGINIA ESPINO: Absolutely. It feels like definitely the Georgia case is mirroring what is taking place — or, what had taken place in Los Angeles. You have people not fully understanding the procedures that are being performed on them. You have miscommunication. You have a code of silence. Thankfully, you have a whistleblower who is breaking that code of silence. But at the L.A. County Hospital in the 1970s, you had a code of silence where people did not speak out against this abuse. People normalized approaching women while they were in labor, and asking them to sign over their fertility. You know, that was a normal practice that was taking place on a day-to-day basis. And nobody —
AMY GOODMAN: And, of course, the consent form was in English. While they lost a lawsuit, this wasn’t before a jury, but before one judge, a white male judge.
VIRGINIA ESPINO: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about the changes that resulted from the bravery of these women coming forward.
VIRGINIA ESPINO: It really rallied the community. You had protests. You had the newspaper covering this issue at a time that it didn’t really cover the ethnic Mexican community. You had a waiting period implemented so that it became illegal to approach a woman while she was in labor regarding tubal ligation. So, a 72 waiting period was implemented. You also had recommendations or legislation put into place that required consent forms be in the language of the patient. So, some of those were monumental changes that occurred because of this lawsuit and because these women came forward.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Virginia Espino, we have to leave it there, but we encourage people to see this amazing documentary, producer and lead historian for the film No Más Bebés, No More Babies, lecturer with the UCLA Department of Chicana, Chicano and Central American Studies. The film aired on PBS Independent Lens in 2016, is now available on demand on Vimeo in both English and Spanish. We will link to it.
That does it for our show. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. Stay safe. Wear a mask. Save lives.


democracynow--2020-09-23--People of Praise: Former Member of Group Tied to SCOTUS Front-Runner Amy Barrett Calls It a "Cult"

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : This is Democracy Now !
, democracynow.org , The Quarantine Report .
I ’ m Amy Goodman , with Juan González , as we continue to look at the background of Judge Amy Coney Barrett , the apparent front-runner to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court .
President Trump said he ’ ll announce a nominee on Saturday .
Mitch McConnell appears to have the 51 votes he needs in the Senate to force a confirmation vote through before @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at Amy Barrett ’ s membership in a secretive Catholic group with rigid gender roles and a lifelong loyalty oath .
We ’ re now joined by a former of People of Praise who ’ s now speaking out against the group .
Coral Anika Theill was a People of Praise member for five years , from 1979 to 1984 , after being forced to join the organization by her then-husband .
She documented her experience in her memoir titled Bonsheá : Making Light of the Dark .
Coral , thanks so much @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Can you describe People of Praise and what happened to you while you lived in the community ?
CORAL ANIKA THEILL : Thank you for having me on your show , and I ’ m a fan of you and your show .
I was a member of the People of Praise — many call it a community , but I describe it as a cult — in Corvallis , Oregon .
I experienced abuse and torture by my husband , Marty Warner , Independence , Oregon , and the cult leaders @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and a smear campaign against me when I escaped and left .
For safety , I legally changed my name , and I ’ ve lived under a state address protection program from my ex-husband for the past 20 years .
Even though I left the People of Praise cult , I didn ’ t have any rights , due to being married to my husband , who was a cult member .
I was under the authority of my husband and his authoritarian head , Ed Brown .
Under their authority , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but because I had defied leadership and their authority , I was forced to sit on the floor outside of their meetings in the hallway at the St. Mary ’ s Catholic Church .
There ’ s dozens of witnesses that have seen how I was treated .
What I would ask listeners to consider , even though they say this is a healthy group , to consider how I was treated and if this would be correct for Amy Barrett to be treated .
One time I had a miscarriage in 1984 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ D & C surgery .
After I returned from the hospital , I was forced to attend a People of Praise women ’ s meeting , or handmaidens ’ meetings .
I had a head that was also woman , besides my husband .
They wanted to go shopping , and I couldn ’ t , due to returning from surgery and feeling weak .
I left the meeting to go home and rest , as my doctor had ordered .
I was met by my husband and forced into the car , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was driven to the cult leader ’ s home .
I was interrogated until wee hours of the morning and psychologically abused .
The next morning , the community was informed to shun me .
I would never allow anyone to treat me this way today , and it traumatizes me to admit this was my life at that time .
CORAL ANIKA THEILL : The trauma experience by cult members — oh , yes ?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : Well , Coral , I wanted to ask you — in terms of some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of what happened to you , I wanted to ask you if you could talk about some of those .
You talk about the situation where the head , that was assigned to you and your husband , wanted to see the family budget , that he told you how many hours per day you could spend on particular chores , including two to four loads of laundry a day , this meddling directly in the day-to-day — in your day-to-day life and affairs with you and your family , and that you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you wanted to leave , that they threatened to try to have you committed to a mental institution ?
CORAL ANIKA THEILL : They would call me mentally ill. And there was a time they had me under special counseling , under Father Charles Harris , who was the head leader of the Corvallis People of Praise branch .
He was from South Bend .
But basically , there was just cruelty and bullying , and it was not much difference than the Jim Jones cult .
I shared with Heidi that my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s Tale series and the Netflix series 10-part documentary The Keepers .
Other things , yeah , there was always a list on my wall , a schedule , and men from the community would come unannounced to check on me to make sure I was on schedule and had done my chores .
There was basically no privacy .
And all of your personal — anything personal was given to your husband ’ s head also .
I wasn ’ t allowed contraceptives and was supposed to have all the children @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what my health was .
I had had eight children and three miscarriages and D & C , often when my health was failing .
AMY GOODMAN : And so , can you talk about your decision to leave the group ?
Now , you ’ re in Corvallis .
Judge Amy Coney Barrett is in the original place of People of Praise , which is South Bend .
And the reports are there are just something like 1,700 members of this group around the country .
Talk , finally , about your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the group .
CORAL ANIKA THEILL : Well , I never wanted to join in the first place , but due to our marriage , I was forced to obey in all things through the duration of our 20-year marriage .
But during the five years especially in the People of Praise cult , I was just forced to obey .
And yes , we had Sunday meetings .
We had — women had Tuesday night meetings .
The men had Thursday night meetings .
There was community meetings to help people within @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a lot of outside contact .
In fact , our leaders would tell us how often we could see our family and our friends .
And even the night my father died in 1984 , he did not allow me to go see my father before he died .
Those were just decisions made .
And as I will say , the bottom line was cruelty .
And members are in spiritual bondage .
Some are afraid to leave .
I believe I was an example .
Perpetrators will show people what happens @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It ’ s very similar to domestic violence in how frightening of an experience it is to leave .
And I was shunned in the community .
And because the People of Praise community in Corvallis had a widespread respect within the community — many of their members are leaders in the local St. Mary ’ s Catholic Church — I was shunned even in stores .
There was people who knew them .
And so it was a very traumatic experience , yes .
AMY GOODMAN : And what happened to your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ THEILL : Well , when I left , eventually the community forced my husband to leave .
It was kind of a long-term wait and see , but I would not go back in .
And , of course , he was enraged that I would not obey , and he was looked upon as a husband that had a disobedient wife , and that was shameful to him , and then he was forced to leave .
And it wasn ’ t long after that I also left the Catholic Church .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ believe as they want , but when there is abuse , I believe you need to leave .
That is with any toxic environment .
And that helps the abusers know that you are not going to allow them to abuse you .
And the church was of no help .
I went to the priests there , and they were friends with Charles Harris , Father Charles Harris , so there was no help .
And — AMY GOODMAN : Well , Coral Anika Theill , I want to thank you very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ former member of the People of Praise Catholic community for five years , from 1979 to ’ 84 , forced to join the organization by her husband at the time .
She documents her experience in her memoir .
Next up , we go to the latest news that immigration authorities say they ’ ve stopped sending women detainees to a Georgia gynecologist accused of sterilizing the female prisoners without their consent .
And we go back and look at the disturbing history of forced sterilization of Chicana women in Los Angeles .
@ @ @ @

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The Quarantine Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González, as we continue to look at the background of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, the apparent front-runner to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. President Trump said he’ll announce a nominee on Saturday. Mitch McConnell appears to have the 51 votes he needs in the Senate to force a confirmation vote through before the election.
We’re looking at Amy Barrett’s membership in a secretive Catholic group with rigid gender roles and a lifelong loyalty oath. We’re now joined by a former of People of Praise who’s now speaking out against the group. Coral Anika Theill was a People of Praise member for five years, from 1979 to 1984, after being forced to join the organization by her then-husband. She documented her experience in her memoir titled Bonsheá: Making Light of the Dark.
Coral, thanks so much for joining us from Corvallis, Oregon. Can you describe People of Praise and what happened to you while you lived in the community?
CORAL ANIKA THEILL: Thank you for having me on your show, and I’m a fan of you and your show.
I was a member of the People of Praise — many call it a community, but I describe it as a cult — in Corvallis, Oregon. I experienced abuse and torture by my husband, Marty Warner, Independence, Oregon, and the cult leaders, as well as shunning, shaming and a smear campaign against me when I escaped and left. For safety, I legally changed my name, and I’ve lived under a state address protection program from my ex-husband for the past 20 years.
Even though I left the People of Praise cult, I didn’t have any rights, due to being married to my husband, who was a cult member. I was under the authority of my husband and his authoritarian head, Ed Brown. Under their authority, I was forced to attend meetings, but because I had defied leadership and their authority, I was forced to sit on the floor outside of their meetings in the hallway at the St. Mary’s Catholic Church. There’s dozens of witnesses that have seen how I was treated. What I would ask listeners to consider, even though they say this is a healthy group, to consider how I was treated and if this would be correct for Amy Barrett to be treated.
One time I had a miscarriage in 1984, and I had to have a D&C surgery. After I returned from the hospital, I was forced to attend a People of Praise women’s meeting, or handmaidens’ meetings. I had a head that was also woman, besides my husband. They wanted to go shopping, and I couldn’t, due to returning from surgery and feeling weak. I left the meeting to go home and rest, as my doctor had ordered. I was met by my husband and forced into the car, kidnapped against my will, where I was driven to the cult leader’s home. I was interrogated until wee hours of the morning and psychologically abused. The next morning, the community was informed to shun me. I would never allow anyone to treat me this way today, and it traumatizes me to admit this was my life at that time.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well —
CORAL ANIKA THEILL: The trauma experience by cult members — oh, yes?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Coral, I wanted to ask you — in terms of some of the hair-raising descriptions in your memoir of what happened to you, I wanted to ask you if you could talk about some of those. You talk about the situation where the head, that was assigned to you and your husband, wanted to see the family budget, that he told you how many hours per day you could spend on particular chores, including two to four loads of laundry a day, this meddling directly in the day-to-day — in your day-to-day life and affairs with you and your family, and that you also mention that once you decided that you wanted to leave, that they threatened to try to have you committed to a mental institution?
CORAL ANIKA THEILL: They would call me mentally ill. And there was a time they had me under special counseling, under Father Charles Harris, who was the head leader of the Corvallis People of Praise branch. He was from South Bend.
But basically, there was just cruelty and bullying, and it was not much difference than the Jim Jones cult. I shared with Heidi that my story is very much like The Handmaid’s Tale series and the Netflix series 10-part documentary The Keepers.
Other things, yeah, there was always a list on my wall, a schedule, and men from the community would come unannounced to check on me to make sure I was on schedule and had done my chores. There was basically no privacy. And all of your personal — anything personal was given to your husband’s head also. I wasn’t allowed contraceptives and was supposed to have all the children God intended for me, no matter what my health was. I had had eight children and three miscarriages and D&C, often when my health was failing.
AMY GOODMAN: And so, can you talk about your decision to leave the group? Now, you’re in Corvallis. Judge Amy Coney Barrett is in the original place of People of Praise, which is South Bend. And the reports are there are just something like 1,700 members of this group around the country. Talk, finally, about your choice to leave and the response of the group.
CORAL ANIKA THEILL: Well, I never wanted to join in the first place, but due to our marriage, I was forced to obey in all things through the duration of our 20-year marriage. But during the five years especially in the People of Praise cult, I was just forced to obey.
And yes, we had Sunday meetings. We had — women had Tuesday night meetings. The men had Thursday night meetings. There was community meetings to help people within the community. There’s not a lot of outside contact. In fact, our leaders would tell us how often we could see our family and our friends. And even the night my father died in 1984, he did not allow me to go see my father before he died. Those were just decisions made.
And as I will say, the bottom line was cruelty. And members are in spiritual bondage. Some are afraid to leave. I believe I was an example. Perpetrators will show people what happens to others when you say no. It’s very similar to domestic violence in how frightening of an experience it is to leave. And I was shunned in the community. And because the People of Praise community in Corvallis had a widespread respect within the community — many of their members are leaders in the local St. Mary’s Catholic Church — I was shunned even in stores. There was people who knew them. And so it was a very traumatic experience, yes.
AMY GOODMAN: And what happened to your children when you left?
CORAL ANIKA THEILL: Well, when I left, eventually the community forced my husband to leave. It was kind of a long-term wait and see, but I would not go back in. And, of course, he was enraged that I would not obey, and he was looked upon as a husband that had a disobedient wife, and that was shameful to him, and then he was forced to leave. And it wasn’t long after that I also left the Catholic Church. I honor everyone’s right to believe as they want, but when there is abuse, I believe you need to leave. That is with any toxic environment. And that helps the abusers know that you are not going to allow them to abuse you. And the church was of no help. I went to the priests there, and they were friends with Charles Harris, Father Charles Harris, so there was no help. And —
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Coral Anika Theill, I want to thank you very much for being with us, a former member of the People of Praise Catholic community for five years, from 1979 to ’84, forced to join the organization by her husband at the time. She documents her experience in her memoir.
Next up, we go to the latest news that immigration authorities say they’ve stopped sending women detainees to a Georgia gynecologist accused of sterilizing the female prisoners without their consent. And we go back and look at the disturbing history of forced sterilization of Chicana women in Los Angeles. Stay with us.