Woman potentially sterilized at ICE facility nearly deported amid claims of forced migrant hysterectomies

Pauline Binam
(Image credit: Screenshot/Twitter/MSNBC)

A group of nonprofit legal advocacy groups and a nurse alleged this week that a private prison in Georgia has been sending the detained migrants housed there by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to get coerced or unwanted hysterectomies or other gynecological procedures ending in sterilization.

The complaints relied mostly on second-hand stories, but since its release Monday, lawyers representing at least 17 women have come forward with stories about forced hysterectomies or other unwanted medical procedures at Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia, according to Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.). One of them, Pauline Binam, was nearly deported on Wednesday. She and another woman who says she was sterilized without consent spoke with MSNBC's Chris Hayes for his Wednesday night broadcast.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.