ICE is making headlines for all the wrong reasons again after fresh claims surfaced that the government branch attempted to deport several witnesses linked to the gynecologic surgery scandal.
According to Vice News, Alma Bowman, a 54-year-old woman in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, was scheduled for deportation on Monday. Bowman has been a key witness, for attorneys and journalists, of a doctor performing the allegedly unnecessary or overly aggressive procedures.
Her lawyer says she is also a U.S. citizen.
“I’m just scared,” Bowman told The Intercept. “I always had this fear that I’ll lose touch with my family.”
In September, a whistleblower who previously worked at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Georgia alleged there had been a high rate of hysterectomies and alleged medical neglect in a complaint filed to the Department of Homeland Security inspector general.
The complaint was filed by a nurse identified as Dawn Wooten and rebuked the practices and conditions at the private Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia.
A spokesperson for ICE said in a statement that the agency “does not comment on matters presented to the Office of the Inspector General.
“ICE takes all allegations seriously and defers to the OIG regarding any potential investigation and/or results. That said, in general, anonymous, unproven allegations, made without any fact-checkable specifics, should be treated with the appropriate skepticism they deserve.”
This week, ICE denied a stay of removal for Bowman, but Bowman’s deportation was halted by Monday afternoon. She has since been returned to a detention center in Georgia.
“I am gratified that the deportation of Alma Bowman has been stayed for now. A 43-year resident of this country with compelling evidence that she is a United States citizen, Ms. Bowman is a material witness in ongoing Congressional and DHS investigations into human rights violations at the ICE Irwin County Detention Center,” Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., told The Intercept in a statement. “To deport her before she has been interviewed would have been a gross obstruction of justice.”
