Letter to Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security - Senators Reverend Warnock, Ossoff Press Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas for Answers on Reported Abuse of Migrant Women, Human Rights Violations at Georgia ICE Facility

Letter

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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