Dozens Of Women Allege Unwanted Surgeries And Medical Abuse In ICE Custody

One former detainee says she was already in a hospital gown this past July waiting to be wheeled into surgery, when she began to suspect something was very wrong. Jaromy Floriano Navarro thought she was getting an operation to remove a cyst on her ovary — until the driver who brought her to the hospital said otherwise.

"She was just like, you know you're having a hysterectomy, right?" Floriano tells NPR in an interview. "And I was in shock, because I knew what that meant."

Floriano is one of more than 30 undocumented immigrants who've come forward with allegations of medical abuse, according to court papers filed late Monday — all of them current or former detainees at the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Ga. Many of the women say they were coerced to have unwanted or unnecessary gynecological procedures while in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or that they were retaliated against for speaking out.