We know immigrants have been intentionally harmed when in need of medical attention while in federal immigration custody. One extensive report released last fall included accounts by immigrant women of unnecessary and invasive procedures performed without consent, including transvaginal ultrasounds and birth control shots, by odious Georgia gynecologist Mahendra Amin.
The report said medical abuse at the Irwin County Detention Center was “consistent with a broad pattern of human rights abuses at ICDC and numerous other immigration detention centers across the country.”
That includes California, where a civil rights complaint made public this week states that immigrants who asked for mental health care while jailed at the CoreCivic-operated Otay Mesa Detention Facility were instead mocked, belittled, and further traumatized by contracted psychologist Hrysso Fernbach.
“Numerous incidents included in the complaint document Dr. Fernbach’s refusal to believe patients’ reporting of symptoms and her use of mocking, hateful and derogatory language that left individuals seeking treatment for their mental health conditions in a state of confusion, and in many cases, in worse condition than before their interaction with Fernbach,” a coalition of legal and advocacy organizations said in a statement.
That includes Sergio Manrique Gutierrez, who said in the civil rights complaint that Fernbach was mocking him within minutes of sitting down in front of her.
“On that day I was in her office and within 3 minutes she said to me, ‘There is nothing wrong with you … Let me guess, you’ve been here since you were a little kid and this is all you know… You want me to write you a letter for the Judge so he can let you stay here.’” The complaint, addressed to the California Board of Psychology, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and offices within Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said Manrique Gutierrez “has struggled with psychotic and mild neurocognitive disabilities for many years.” Manrique Gutierrez said visiting Fernbach “only made me feel [sic] worse than I did before seeing her.”
Sulieto Guitche Domingo Jr., who had attempted suicide while in detention, said in the complaint that Fernbach alleged he was seeing her only to try to access a court settlement providing legal representation to detained immigrants with mental disabilities. But Guitche Domingo Jr. already had legal assistance when he went to go see Fernbach. “Mr. Guitche felt that he was forced to show her the cuts on his wrists, the result of a suicide attempt in prison, to force Dr. Fernbach to take him seriously,” the complaint stated.
Organizations said that medical charts have since been independently reviewed. Those experts found that in the case of Junior Jerome, his “suicidality was in part precipitated by the provision of this substandard care,” and that “persistent mental health problems have been prolonged or exacerbated by this substandard care.” Otay Mesa has already faced intense scrutiny for anti-immigrant abuses, including forcing detained people to sign liability forms in order to get face masks during the pandemic. Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejia, the first person to die of COVID-19 while in ICE custody, had been jailed at Otay Mesa.
The coalition of organizations (click here for the full list) urge an investigation into individuals’ reports, as well as that the “complaint be submitted to the Attorney General for consideration of disciplinary action to protect detained individuals from further harm from Dr. Fernbach, including revocation of her license to practice psychology.”
“Just because someone is facing a deportation order, that doesn't mean that we don't have mental health problems,” Jerome said in the statement. “At Otay Mesa, they didn't want to help me at all. The first time I asked for help, they put me in solitary confinement. I couldn't sleep, I had PTSD, I would wake up sweating and pacing back and forth. I would see things and people that weren't there, like my daughter. I tried to get help for the first time in my life.”
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