Another 17 women treated by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) doctor said they were given an aggressive gynecological procedure without proper informed consent.

According to a The Intercept report, the said hysterectomy was done at privately run facility Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia, holding U.S. ICE detainees.

This information was based on the briefing and written materials submitted by the attorneys and advocates to senators in a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill.

The overall number of women who have been seen by the doctor since 2018 has expanded to 57. They said they underwent or pressured to undergo unnecessary treatments.

The lawyers responsible for the case said the number of women is higher than what was previously known. 

Advocates for detainees worry that there may never be a full accounting as the number of women alleging medical misconduct continue to grow.

"It pains me to know that there could be many more women out there who will never be able to talk about what happened to them and the abuse that they suffered while at Irwin, let alone receive a measure of redress, while living with the life-long damage to their bodies and spirits," Azadeh Shahshahani, the legal and advocacy director of Project South, said in a report.

Project South first raised the issues in a whistleblower complaint. ICE and the private prison corporation LaSalle must be held accountable for the said issues, according to Shahshahani.

The doctors and former detainees outlined a pattern of gynecological operations done by Dr. Mahendra Amin.

Amin was the doctor at the center of all the allegations.

Meanwhile, ICE said it stopped referring patients to Amin after the whistleblower complaint first came to light in September.

Organizations and attorneys involved in the case submitted the materials to Congress. This includes advocates from South Georgia Immigrant Support Network, Project South, the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, and Georgia Detention Watch.

The Southern Poverty Law Center's Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative also took part in the compilation of the case.

Amin's lawyer, Scott Grubman, sent a statement after a Los Angeles Times story was published last week. Grubman said that Amin could not comment on individual allegations made but claimed that there are "serious questions to the veracity" of the LA Times reporting.

He particularly cited that team of medical experts did not request medical records from Irwin County Hospital or Amin himself. However, Grubman did not respond to follow-up questions from The Intercept.

He has said that Amin is cooperating with investigators and that the doctor will be cleared of any wrongdoing.

Tony Pham, ICE's acting director, told The Intercept that the recent allegations by the independently contracted employee have given some very serious concerns that need to be probed quickly and clearly.

He added that ICE welcomes initiatives of both Homeland Security as well as the department's Office of Inspector General to look at the case.

Pham concluded his statement by saying that if there is any truth to the allegations, he vows to make certain corrections needed to ensure that the department prioritizes the detainees' health and welfare.

Check these out:

Hysterectomies Performed on Immigrant Women in US Without Consent, Whistleblower Says

ICE Facility: Claims of Unwanted Hysterectomies and Other Abuses Lead to Investigation