McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — About one-third of major surgeries that were performed at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in three recent years were not properly reviewed or approved, according to a new report by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General.
This included hysterectomies that were performed on asylum-seekers in ICE Health Service Corps (IHSC) facilities in Fiscal Years 2019 through 2021, according to the report.
The OIG report, released Tuesday, found about 200 of 553 major surgeries performed in those three years did not have the proper review or approval by IHSC physicians who are designated as a regional clinical director, or a clinical director, according to the agency’s regulations. The report did find that 72 major surgeries, while not reviewed by the required physician directors, were reviewed by agency nurses or nurse practitioners.
“As a result, IHSC does not have assurance that all major surgeries conducted FY 2019 through FY 2021 were medically necessary,” the report found.
The report was released 14 months after a Senate investigation in November 2022 found that U.S. immigration authorities didn’t do enough to properly vet or monitor a gynecologist in rural Georgia who performed unnecessary medical procedures on detained migrant women without their consent, including hysterectomies.
The Senate conducted an 18-month investigation into the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia after a whistleblower complaint was brought in September 2020.
The OIG report found that in two of six hysterectomies performed, “the detained non-citizens’ IHSC medical files did not include documentation to support a conclusion that a hysterectomy was medically necessary.”
The agency in Fiscal 2021 oversaw medical care for about 88,000 non-citizen detainees at 21 ICE facilities and monitored compliance for nearly 170,000 non-citizen detainees at 160 non-IHSC staffed facilities. This included medical, dental, mental health and emergency care.
Major surgeries are defined as procedures with post-operative periods from 11 days up to 90 days, like knee and back surgeries.
The OIG report recommended that physician directors who are tasked with approving the surgeries be required to document their review and approval of major surgical procedures in IHSC’s electronic health records system “to ensure medically necessary and appropriately documented medical care for detained non-citizens.”
ICE officials, in the report, agreed to the suggestion.
The report will be sent to congressional oversight and appropriations committees that oversee Homeland Security and medical issues.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.