Story has been updated July 14, 2022 to reflect a comment received from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the allegations
Four migrant women have gone public with allegations of sexual harassment at the Stewart Detention Center – the largest immigration jail in the state.
Their accounts of assault center on the actions of a male nurse employed at the detention center, who they say insisted on viewing and groping private body parts without medical justification. Over the course of at least one examination, the nurse also rubbed his penis against one woman’s hands, according to a letter describing the four women’s allegations submitted to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, or CRCL, on July 12.
The women are asylum-seekers. They were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at Stewart from July 2021 to January 2022 and are now out of detention as they wait for their immigration cases to proceed.
Two of the women – identified in the complaint by the pseudonyms Maria and Laura – reported the nurse’s behavior to multiple Stewart officials, according to the CRCL complaint. Those reports were allegedly met with threats of retaliation, legal action, prison time, and prolonged detention.
Allegations of sexual assault from women detained at Stewart Detention Center follow much-publicized reports of nonconsensual gynecological procedures at another Georgia immigrant jail, the now-shuttered Irwin County Detention Center, in Ocilla. In the wake of the alleged Irwin abuses in the fall of 2020, immigration authorities began transferring detainees to Stewart, which had been a male-only facility.
“While [we’re] appalled to hear of the abuse and retaliation that these brave survivors have endured, we are not surprised, given the pervasive history of abuse and human rights violations at detention centers in Georgia,” said Adelina Nicholls, executive director of the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights.
Alongside other immigrant advocacy groups, including El Refugio, Project South, Black Alliance for Just Immigration and the Southern Poverty Law Center, GLAHR co-signed the July 12 complaint, which names both ICE and CoreCivic, the Nashville-based corrections company that operates Stewart through an agreement with ICE.
ICE “has a zero-tolerance policy for all forms of assault, including sexual abuse, and works to protect detainees from sexual abuse by staff as well as other detainees,” an ICE spokesperson told the AJC. “Every allegation is investigated and referred appropriately for adjudication as required.”
In a statement, CoreCivic noted that “it is CoreCivic policy to aggressively investigate all allegations, regardless of the source, and support prosecution for those who are involved in incidents of sexual abuse…. Alleged victims of sexual abuse will be provided a supportive and protective environment.”
In response to the reports of abuse that the two women made to Stewart officials while in detention, CoreCivic told the AJC that an internal investigation found one woman’s report “unsubstantiated” and the other “unfounded.”
“We have very little information regarding the claims made by the other two women, but will investigate them thoroughly if and when we receive that information.”
CoreCivic said the nurse at the heart of the sexual assault allegations was placed on administrative leave while the company’s investigation was being conducted, and is back on the job. The company “unequivocally” denies claims of threats or retaliation.
In addition to the complaint addressed to federal officials, the immigrant advocacy groups also filed complaints against the CoreCivic nurse to the Georgia Board of Nursing.
Listening to heart and lung sounds with a stethoscope “does not require a patient to remove or lift up their shirt and expose their breasts and certainly does not require removal of the bra,” the CRCL complaint reads. “The way [the nurse] engaged with patients was not indicated, outside the scope of his practice, and in violation of the medical ethics required of a healthcare professional during patient-provider encounters.”
As of June 13, 1,092 migrants were in custody at the Stewart Detention Center, more than any other immigrant jail in the nation. It’s not clear how many of those in custody are women.
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