Senators Reverend Warnock, Ossoff have actively pressed the Biden Administration for oversight and accountability regarding immigration facilities
Senators to Secretary Mayorkas: “If true, these allegations would demonstrate an inhumane lack of care for these women and other detained persons at the facility”
ICYMI from Telemundo: Abuso sexual en Stewart: Warnock y Ossoff exigen al secretario de Seguridad Nacional investigar
Washington, D.C. — Today, following reports of sexual assault of migrant women at a Georgia ICE detention center, U.S. Senators Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Jon Ossoff (D-GA) pushed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for answers concerning the status of the investigation into these deeply disturbing reports. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, four women have come forward stating that they were sexually assaulted by a nurse at the Stewart Detention Center.
“I write to express my concerns regarding allegations of sexual assault against migrant women at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia… If true, these allegations would demonstrate an inhumane lack of care for these women and other detained persons at the facility…” wrote the Senators. “I ask that you immediately investigate these allegations and provide a briefing on your findings…”
Read Senators Reverend Warnock and Ossoff’s full letter to Senate leadership HERE or below:
Dear Secretary Mayorkas,
I write to express my concerns regarding allegations of sexual assault against migrant women at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia.
In a letter sent on July 12, 2022, to the Department of Homeland Security Office of Civil Rights and Liberties leadership, four women share details of alleged sexual assault by a male nurse at the detention facility. If true, these allegations would demonstrate an inhumane lack of care for these women and other detained persons at the facility. As the letter notes, this is not the first time concerns have been raised at Stewart Detention Center about its ability to protect individuals from sexual assault.
I ask that you immediately investigation these allegations and provide me directly with responses to the following questions:
- What is the state of the investigation into the allegations of sexual assault made by four women on July 12, 2022?
- What are you doing to ensure all individuals are protected at ICE facilities from sexual assault and abuse?
- What are you doing to ensure there are language appropriate resources as you are conducting interviews and outreach during the investigation?
- Are you making efforts to determine if there are any other victims?
- What are you doing to ensure any individual at an ICE facility who comes forward with an allegation of abuse does not face retaliation or threats of retaliation?
- The letter suggests that the nurse who is alleged to have committed the assaults had already been the subject of an investigation and was briefly relocated to a different part of the facility and is now again treating patients. Could you please clarify and provide an account of how such a series of transfers could occur?
Georgia’s ICE facilities have already faced deeply concerning allegations of human rights violations, namely the abuse of women at the now-close Irwin County Detention Center. Many of the detained individuals who were at the Irwin Detention Center have, since its closure, been transferred to Stewart Detention Center.
I ask that you immediately investigate these allegations and provide a briefing on your findings no later than August 19, 2022.
Sincerely,
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