Show your love for the sojourner | Natalie Dalea

Show your love for the sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt

By Natalie Dalea

The Department of Homeland Security is investigating allegations that immigrant women detained at a privately run detention center in Georgia underwent gynecological procedures without fully understanding or consenting to them… The nurse, Dawn Wooten, claims in the complaint that several women detained at the facility told her their uteruses had been removed without their consent…”

The New York Times, September 16, 2020

This news is horrific. At the time of writing this, it is September 20th, four days later, and I still get sick to my stomach reading it. Hysterectomies are surgeries that remove women’s wombs. The recovery period is brutal; it can take two months to heal, and there are risks of women bleeding to death. The fact that doctors performed this type of invasive surgery, sterilizing all these women- without their permission? With intimidation? As a Christian Latina, I am shocked to my core. The UN defines 5 major tools of genocide - any can be present to count. They are as followed:

• Killing members of the group;

• Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

• Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

• Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

• Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

In this case, forced hysterectomies are #2 and particularly #4. The women involved said they did not understand why they had to undergo this surgery. Many said they didn’t have heavy menstrual bleeding or any reason to remove their uteruses. They likened their ICE treatment as being part of an “experimental concentration camp.” Can you imagine? Being trapped somewhere, not sharing a language with many of those responsible for you, and being forced to go under the surgeon’s knife? Waking up and a major organ gone? Your hopes for a family completely obliterated. It doesn’t take a pro-life/pro-choice debate to understand this treatment is horrific. It doesn’t take a debate on immigration policy to understand this treatment is horrific. It simply requires having a soul. For my Christian family, I will say this: whatever your stance on national policy is, Jesus called on us to protect immigrant people. There are over 30 verses on this. One should be enough. I will list three:

• Deuteronomy 10:19 - So show your love for the sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

• Leviticus. 27:19 - Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.Then all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’

• Mathew 25:35 - I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty, and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.

I’m not asking you to justify any immigration policy. I am asking you to recognize this injustice, especially if we’re Christians, and come to these women’s aid. These women are defenseless in detention centers. If we, who have everything, refuse to give anything, how can we say we love justice and mercy? At the very least, this requires investigation. At the time of writing this piece, it is September, and I have emailed Ohio’s Senators and my district Representative. Sen. Rob Portman emailed back that the case has been referred to the US Department of Homeland Security Inspector General. He wrote, “I am confident that the Inspector General will investigate the allegations fully and fairly, and I will be watching for the results of that investigation.” I will be watching too. And I will not let my elected officials forget this in the national shuffle. No matter what happens in the 2020 election, I will not forget these women. I ask you, please, will you help them too? ICE is a federal program, so it requires federal action. Please email or call your Representatives and Senators to investigate this, and any other medical malpractice ongoing in detention centers around the country. All women’s detention centers are guarded by male guards. There are many corroborated reports of rampant sexual violence in these centers too. Please understand this – if you remove a woman’s uterus, you remove any chance that she could become pregnant, thus removing the most confirming proof of sexual assault. Because many local jails (especially in Ohio) double as detention centers, call your governors and state Congress members too. You can look up Federal, State, and Local Elected Officials at https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials.