thanks to you at home for joining us this hour it was not the first trump administration scandal certainly not the last in terms of permanent damage done to humans, in terms

prior experience of anything having to do with resettling rev few fwees so why should he run the refugee resettlement office. for unexplained reasons they gave him the job anyway.

he decided he would use the power of his office. people were under his control. he would use that power to block a teenage rape victim who was living alone run by a shelter by scott floyd's office he tried to block her from obtaining an abortion so she would not be forced to bear the child of her rapist. he decided he would block that in this country it does not matter if you are not american by birth, it doesn't matter if you are here as a legal immigrant or otherwise under our constitution, everybody is guaranteed a constitutional right to obtain an abortion. in this case she wanted one. this trump appointee, scott lloyd, who knows why he was in this job in the first place.

he desicided he would block thi girl from getting one. he's the guy in charge with this agency he decided he would use that power to take it upon himself to block any young woman under his purview from getting an abortion for any reason starting with the 17-year-old girl who had been raped. in the end that 17-year-old girl sued and she won and she was able to get the abortion and the lawsuit around her cases turned up something else about the way the trump administration was running this operation and this guy scott lloyd who was put in charge with all of these people "the new york times" was first to break the news that scott lloyd had instructed his staff to give him a spreadsheet every week listing one by one individually girls who were in the custody of this agency who were pregnant.

that spreadsheet eventually became public thanks to a foia request and when it became public it was revealed to all of us that not only was scott lloyd keeping tabs on every pregnant young woman in his agency's custody, he was tracking all the girls menstrual cycles as well i should tell you, he was tracking these girls periods after a court told him that he needed to stop interfering in these girls' medical care decisions. even after that court order telling him to get out of these decisions to get out of the middle of it he kept tracking their periods individually girl by girl, month by month because that's what he was into. i know this was dark stuff it was rough reporting this. you come to work and hope there's no new developments on that story but the reason i'm

bringing it all up again tonight is because now we have arrived at the next chapter in this same story. i'm not going to dance around it i'm just going to say it we sudden have seen it coming. a nurse who works at an i.c.e. detention facility in georgia has just contributed to a whistle-blower complaint she said that? her time working at the i.c.e. detention facility, irwin county, georgia, she said that immigrant women at that facility have told her they have routinely been sent to a gynecologist who has performed unnecessary procedures on them, including hisster rekt miss. just underscore that this is a federal facility and they have been sending immigrant women to a doctor who has

performed hysterectomies this was written by project self i will tell you in advance, although you can probably see it coming, that it's a little bit upsetting. from the complaint, quote, a detained immigrant told project south that she talked to five different women detained at the facility five different women between october, november, december 2019, five different women who had had a hysterectomy done when she talked to them about the surgery the women reacted confused when explaining why they had one done. the detainee said when i met all of these women i thought it was an experimental concentration camp it was like they're experime experimenting with our bodies. the nurse explains it like this. everybody this doctor sees has a hysterectomy, just about everybody. he's even taken out the wrong

ovary on one detained woman. she was supposed to get the left ovary removed, he took out the right one. she was upset. she had to go back to take out the left and she wound up with a total hysterectomy she has to go back home and tell her husband she cannot bear kids she heard the doctor tell the nurse that he took out the wrong ovary. she and her fellow nurses questioned among ourselves, like, goodness, he's taking everybody's stuff. he's the uterus ollector she said, quote, i know that's ugly is he collecting these things or something? everybody he sees, he's taking all their uteruses out or he's taking their tubes out what in the world. according to the nurse, she alleges that on several occasions women told her that this doctor performed hysterectomies for no medical reason without their proper informed consent this nurse, the whistle-blower, talked about it today with my

colleague jacob soberoff. >> the ladies were put in to see the gynecologist for whatever reason they were wanting to be seen for and they were having hysterectomies they would come back oftentimes and question why did i have to have a hysterectomy? i didn't have an answer. >> they would ask you directly >> why did i have to have a hysterectomy nobody explained this to me. i had one lady that tell me that she was a young girl if she had of known that she was going to have a hysterectomy, she wouldn't have went. >> you're quoted in the complaint saying, that's his special specialty, he's the uterus collector. is that how the people refer to this doctor? >> that's how the detainees refer to this physician. they refer to -- i had a detain me what is he doing, miss wooten,

collecting all of our uteruses i just looked at her puzzled because i didn't have an answer. >> i don't know what to say hearing you describe this as a nurse giving care to these inmates, how do you process this what is this like? >> you -- you're in awe because you don't have -- you don't have a valid answer for them. it's mind blowing. it's mind boggling when you get in your vehicle after a 12 hour shift and you cry yourself home and you're the only one in the vehicle asking why? what is going on what is happening? i don't have an answer why is nobody not hearing snem or taking them, so to speak, seriously. i don't have an answer so shift after shift, then it gets to be to where you don't want to report to work because you don't

have an answer you don't have a reason and they're going to ask you why. >> what happened to the women that you spoke of? do you know? >> a lot of them were deported back to their countries. i don't know if they were transferred others to other facilities. >> do you think what -- do you think what happened to the women that you spoke with is going to happen to other women in the future >> me personally, if there's not a change, there's not going to be a change. if there's not any correction, there's not going to be any correction if there are not people like myself that are brave enough to have a voice for other people and not be so afraid to speak out. a lot of people desire to speak out but afraid of losing their job. i spoke out. i was demoted so i was made the example of i whistle blew because i love to do what i love to do, and if it

was my son or my daughter, my mother or my father that was in that situation, then i would want somebody to speak out on their behalf as well >> you obviously know the detainees well inside irwin. what would be your message to them today >> my message to the detainees today would be all hope is not lost, that things last for only a short while but there is a beacon light and there is a light at the end of the tunnel i apologize on behalf of irwin county detention center for what goes on concerning them in the facili facility and i understand totally not in

that situation, but i understand totally what it feels like to be overlooked and neglected, just not neglected in silence. >> i should tell you that these allegations from this whistle-blower are not isolated complaints nbc news has spoken to four different lawyers who represent women who were detained in that federal facility in georgia who are making similar claims. according to nbc's reporting one of the lawyers represents two women who are detained at the facility who say they received hysterectomies who they believe may be unnecessary another woman said she went to the doctor's office for an exexam and it left her with bruising an attorney for the doctor said his client vigorously denies these allegations. for its part, i.c.e., immigration and customes

enforcement said these accusations will be fully investigated by an independent office the health, welfare and safety of i.c.e. detainees are the highest priorities this statement goes on to say according to i.c.e. data since 2018, only two individuals at irwin county detention center were referred to certified medical credentials for hysterectomies whether or not the women were referred for hysterectomies or not, more than two women are saying they got them and more than two women are telling lawyers as part of this complaint that they don't know why they got them and that they don't think they needed them joining us is jacob soberoff,

msn msnbc. author of "separated." thanks for doing this interview and talking about this reporting. >> thank you for having me here. >> you had this remarkable interview with this whistle-blower, this nurse who has worked at this facility. chris hayes was able to talk with her live in the last hour to be clear, as compelling as her story is, her first person story is, the allegations aren't coming solely from her there are things that other lawyers and other people have declared as part of the complaint would seem to back up what she's saying. >> yeah, i'm glad you brought that up. for us, it was important to corroborate the allegations from ms. wooten i wanted to speak with her which obviously i did but also to corroborate the mike grants.

we spoke to four different lawyers today and everyone of them said they had a client who had contact with this doctor where they were told one thing and ultimately they were -- they came out of this either having a procedure or being recommended to have a procedure that was deeply invasive or at least in two cases the hysterectomies took place they went to the detention facility, complained about the treatment from this doctor but no change was ever made. >> and to be clear, the complaints here from these women and their lawyers who are speaking on their behalf is essentially that they -- not that they never should have been sent out to see a gynecologist, but, rather, whatever was going on with them, they didn't understand that the treatment was going to be a hysterectomy and in some cases the allegation here is the hysterectomies, whether or not the women consented to them in the first place, they were not medically

necessary. >> no, that's right. there are other allegations of other procedures including pap smears where women were told you have ovarian cancer and that turned out not to be the case but those procedures happened anyway they own and operate the irwin facility for i.c.e we did get a statement and i'd like to read that. it was that they say they adhere to performance based standards and lasalle corrections has a strict zero tolerance policy for any inappropriate behaviors in our facilities our company strongly refutes these allegations and any implications of misconduct at the icdc that goes against what we heard from one of the attorneys today, which is when these allegations came up from their clients, she

went to the correctional facility, she told them she didn't want her patients seeing that doctor and patients continued to see that doctor as ms. wooten said. this statement that they consider him the uterus collector, it's graphic, that's what thur' talking about she's not the only one saying so. >> what should happen here legally in terms of this complaint? obviously she's casting herself as a whistle-blower. there is corroboration i.c.e. is saying this will be investigated the facility will say whether or not it is investigated they denied this happened the doctor is saying the same thing. what do you expect to happen in terms of being looked into, these women's claims being investigated and being accountability here? >> so the office of inspector general, department of homeland

security will open an investigation. the office of civil rights and civil liberties. what this gets to, one of the lawyers said to me which i really want to underscore here, while she didn't think this was a large conspiracy by the government to have these procedures on these women, it is emblematic of systematic lack of oversight for medical care and also just well-being and welfare of immigrants in immigration detention as well as you mentioned what happened with scott lloyd. we didn't know it was happening because we couldn't see inside they stressed to me that this particular example is uniquely heinous but it's one of many examples in this system which precede this area where they

seek refuge and asylum they have virtually no recourse when something like this happens. the government would say differently. >> prison-like conditions and worse. the -- i know there's a reason that i.c.e. put their denial in the terms immediately about whether this is human experimentation on these powerless detainees. i understand they went right at that the fact that this is part of the government where we're training people who are working even at a -- working for the u.s. government to treat human beings the way immigrants and refugees have been treated, it's on all of us in terms of what the government is saying we stand for and what they'll do in their name. >> there's no doubt about it, rachel it's why it's important to talk about them these are hard stories and these

are real human beings undergoing this treatment at the hands of a so-called professional now the department of homeland security will be forced to investigate this on the hill they're calling for investigations as well >> msnbc correspondent, jacob soboroff thank you for your reporting and putting it in context. i appreciate it. much more to get to in the news tonight stay with us nah. ♪ here? nope. ♪ here. ♪ when the middle of nowhere... is somewhere. the all-new chevy trailblazer.

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when supporters of president trump convened in freeland, michigan, a couple of days ago for a no mask rally. people had to drive up, line up to get in alongside this truck, a sound truck playing this

sound. watch. >> play it down. i wanted to always play it down. i still like playing it down i wanted to play it down i always like playing it down. i still like playing it down i wanted to always play it down. wanted to always play it down. i wanted to always play it down. >> the democratic party sent this truck to trump's michigan rally at the end of last week playing on a loop the sound of president trump speaking to bob woodward i wanted to always play it down. i still like playing it down the visuals on the side of the truck -- can you cut the sound on that please listing the number of americans dead from coronavirus and the number of businesses closed over that out loud loop even playing

it here gets inside your brain and won't let you go that was last week then this week the president held another rally the only indoor events with thousands of people and no masks required the only events of that kind because of the pandemic. he was asked by the las vegas review journal about the coronavirus risk of him holding this big indoor rally. i'm on a stage and it's very far away so i'm not at all concerned. the president thinks he'll be fine, he gets tested whenever he wants. no shouting and chanting and screaming and breathing on each other so they'll infect each other. he doesn't worry about that. he'll be fine. he's far away from them up on the stage. since then bob woodward has released more tapes of the president talking about coronavirus to cnn and to cbs in

addition to the original tapes that were provided to the washington post. i know you've seen the reporting on this, but it really is just something to hear him say t hear him admit it when even now he is -- even this week he is holding no mask events and telling people it's no big deal. it will go away like magic, kids are immune and all the rest. >> it goes through air, bob. that's always tougher than the touch. the touch, you don't have to touch things but the air, you just breathe the air that's how it's passed that's a very tricky one that's a very delicate one it's also more deadly than your -- you know, even your strenuous flus this is more deadly. this is deadly stuff >> now it's turning out it's not just old people, bob. >> yeah, exactly. >> plenty of young people. bob, really, to be honest with

you -- >> sure, i want you to. >> -- i wanted to always play it down i still like playing it down >> this thing is a killer if it gets you if you're the wrong person, you don't have a chance. >> yes, yes, exactly, this is a monster. >> this is a scourage. >> it is the plague and, bob, it's so easily transmissible, you wouldn't even believe it >> the president speaking in private. it's so easily transmissible you wouldn't even believe it it's the plague. this rips you apart. if you're the wrong person, you don't have a chance. this thing is a killer if it gets you that's him in private talking about what he actually knows and then in public he's putting thousands of people inside without masks. >> you can't have political rallies. that's because of me if it were biden, there would be three people you know why he puts the

circles? because he wants to be correct with covid but it's not really they can't get anybody to fill up a room. they put these big circles nobody wants to go the fake news. look at all of those people back there. the fake ones. >> that's the way the president is campaigning on covid. it's no big deal don't wear masks we should all get thousands of people together for rallies, including indoors. don't obey stay at home orders or shutdowns anybody who's doing that and trying to pay attention to the ways you're supposed to behave not to get covid, they're wusses, they're lying to you that's how the president is campaigning. the biden has the gift of campaigning on covid using the president's own words against

him. using those tapes but also these ads. >> the president caught red handed children are almost immune secretly saying the stuff. >> this is deadly stuff. >> millions of jobs lost, 190,000 americans dead you took an oath to protect our citizens mr. president, these deaths are on your hands. it's time to put america back in the hands of a president who will protect the country and tell us the truth. >> i'm joe biden and i approve this message. >> we are hitting the home stretch of the campaign less than 50 days out now voters in 6 or 7 states can already start sending in their votes. if you can do that, you should vote early this year if you can. this is a live beast, both in terms of the way it plays in the election and everything else this is something that is upon

us the lsu football coach casually announced that most of that entire top ranked football team has contracted covid most of the whole lsu football team up in maine the story we've been following about one wedding held in maine last month where they didn't follow crowd size restrictions and people didn't wear masks that wedding has been identified of the source of the largest outbreak in maine. it is still spreading out across the state. it is blamed for seven deaths in the state, none of whom attended the wedding. then their family members and associates spread it at a jail and a senior living facility

>> the pastor is continuing to hold in person indoor congregate services while the outbreak that he appears to have caused in his own church is spreading through his congregation and why is he doing that because he thinks it's all a hoax in south dakota, for which most of the national headlines these days are about the republican attorney general in the state killing a person and reported it as hitting a deer, not a person, i know the local press in south dakota is focused pretty intently on the fact that they have the lowest case rates. while christine said she doesn't believe experts opinions about masks. she admitted to taking $5 million of the federal covid relief money for her state and

instead spending it on tourism ads for south dakota come visit, south dakota, our covid new infection rates are quadruple the rest of the country, our governor thinks it's not happening ditch the mask and come play on the side of the road here. that's what they spent their covid money. the governor doesn't think it's that big of a deal meanwhile, the south dakota infection rates are highest or second highest in the country. the pandemic is alive and well and the news about it is flabbergasting in some new way every day. we are about to hit the terrible milestone of 200,000 americans dead from this thing i don't know if it will make a difference between the country making a difference between trump and biden.

the response continues not just to be bad, tonight in a town hall thing with abc news the president tried and failed, he wasn't able to spit it out, he was trying to endorse the idea of herd immunity in the united states absent a vaccine, it's the idea of letting everybody getting it. >> you'll develop a heard mentality, it's heard developed. >> heard mentality heard mentality. you mean heard immunity. that's what you're pursuing and you don't even know what it is and you think it might be the same thing as heard mentality? tonight one of the stories that we're following is a new decision by the trump administration about coronavirus that will blow your mind it involves two multi-billion dollar companies and that story's next

her name is tin aye. she fled to the united states. shortly after coming to this country she got a job at the meat processing plant in greely, colorado in late march she contracted covid. her daughter says that at the time she was coughing, feverish. her symptoms eventually got bad enough that ms. aye went to the company clinic the clinic told her, quote, she just had a normal cold so they sent her back to work. within a few days miss aye was so sick she had to be admitted to the intensive care unit and while she was there, her daughter gave birth to a graptd son. shortly before being placed on a

ventilator, she said, i feel really bad that i couldn't see my grandson. i want to see him. after that she cried, she count see her. tin aye was one of six workers at the greely, colorado, meat packing plant who ultimately died one more place, six deaths this was not a crisis defined to that one plant in colorado we covered this story from the beginning as cases started to skyrocket at meat packing plants nothing inherent about meat packs that spread the virus. the reason is because of the working conditions there which is defined by the companies that run these places what made them so efficient for this covid epidemic is the fact that the workers were working in conditions in which the meat plants found them to be

efficiently arrayed, packed together in very close quarters for very long shifts with no way to stay away from each other and no way to mask up or protect themselves anybody infected in the plant infected everybody else. at facilities like the smithfield plant in sioux falls, south dakota, more than 1200 people ultimately tested positive in loeg gans port people tested positive there were outbreaks in minnesota, nebraska, illinois, wisconsin and nearly every other state where the plants operated. early on we saw parts of the federal government and states themselves to force these meat processing facilities to stay open no matter what, telling

them they had to shut down because of danger. today we have reason to believe that scientific advice may have been purposefully watered down by the trump administration to try to keep the meat industry going. later we saw republican governors in multiple states crack down on people's ability to even know about outbreaks at specific meat packing plants by hiding that data and not letting it be announced when they had multiple people testing positive as egregious as that has been over the past three months, there have been two new revelations in the last several days that have put even me back on my heels. we've been covering this from the beginning and that story is next stay with us so what's going on?

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jaels and prisons, senior living facility and nursing

home and meat packing plants. if you want to put a bull's eye on which you as an american worker are most likely to get infected on the job, it has been the same stark list. in the meat packing industry, so far more than 42,000 people. 42,000 meat packing workers have tested positive. 2 of them have died. despite that, federal regulators issued their first fines to these facilities for not keeping their workers safe more than 200 people dead and the total fines assessed against meat packing companies are less than $30,000 combined. less than $30,000 in fines split between two meat packing companies that between them had something like $66 billion in revenue last year. jbs and smithfield despite the deaths of multiple employees of the jbs plant in colorado, despite the deaths in sioux falls, south dakota, both

say they plan to contest these meager, tiny little fines that have been handed down against the facilities by osha then on top of that, there's stunning news that propublica reported, it has to do with the order from president trump that all meat packing plants had to remain open. that was first drafted by the meat industry itself he just signed it. in fact, just one week before the order was issued the meat industry's trade group sent top officials a similar order despite the one the president signed despite the fact the workers were on the front lines, they were the ones running the government response and hundreds of people died joining us is debby berkowitz, worker health and safety program. she previously served for six

years at osha during the obama administration ms. berkowitz, thank you for making time to be with us. i appreciate you being here. >> i'm happy to be here. thank you. >> let me just ask if the way that i have put this strikes you as the right way to approach this or if you think i may be looking at this the wrong way around is this the appropriate context versus the scale of the attempte yeah, totally this is stunning, rachel you got this right this is an industry that decided to thumb its nose at the guidance, the basic guidance the centers for disease control put out in late march that the way to mitigate the spread of covid-19 was six feet apart and social distancing. they just decided not to do it and they decided they would just keep their plants going. every other industry was

changing, rearranging, restructuri restructuring. so many of our businesses were closed to protect workers and members of the industry. in these plants, more workers died in the last couple of months from covid than died in the whole meat packing industry a year ago in these plants they got this tiny citation, less than a slap on the wrist, which is sort of like a get out of jail free card and it's sending signals to the industry, it's okay. there are no consequences for you failing to protect the safety and health of these vital, essential workers who are giving us and producing, you know, the meat and poultry that we eat >> there was a powerful editorial in the greely tribune, which is home to greely,

colorado, where the jbs plant had so many workers that died. it's about the idea of the size of the fine effectively being worse than -- the small size of the fine being effectively worse than no fine because that essentially tells the company that they're going to be able to do stuff like this and never face anything. they say there's nothing nice to be taken from this they recorded a net revenue of 52 bld that means this is wort worth .00003%. the equivalent of fining someone making $50,000 a year 1.5 cents. the point is jbs -- even as they're contesting the fine, they must be welcoming this f. this means this is the worst

that's going to happen to you, that's carte blanche to do anything with your workers >> right not going to offer any protection to workers. i think workers are totally more terrified in the meat and poultry industry than before this now the industry knows there are no consequences for the meet industry eight hours a day to produce meat we talked to the local unions there and they were totally stunned, but really the message that has gone out from this administration is workers, we agree with the meat industry you guys are expendable. these workers are solid, you know, blue collar workers who really support our economy and

the law is very clear that companies have to protect them except in this administration when -- and this is very different than any other republican administration where if there were bad acting companies or industries that cut corners on safety, you know, osha would go after them ronald regan issued one of the highest fines in the agency to a meat packing plant in the industry it was $5.7 million. they decided they didn't want it we did enforcement in the end, rachel, as you said, and as the greely paper said, they're right, this actually is going to do more harm than any good because it's like if you're speeding and you get a speeding ticket of 50 cents rather than $150, you're going to be like,

oh, i could get 30 of these, i'll continue to speed that's the message to the industry keep on keeping on you don't have to protect your workers. >> debby berkowitz, former chief of staff at osha now the director of the worker health and safety project. thank you for being with us. good to have you here. >> thanks so much, rachel. >> we'll be right back stay with us myhealthpolicy.com. (woman) at myhealthpolicy.com, it's all about me. my priorities. (man) my choices. (woman) my medicare. (announcer) myhealthpolicy.com. start here. click to reserve your free copy of my medicare guide or call 1-800-go-start and make it easy.

that is going to do it for us tonight i will tell you, it is 49 days from the presidential election right now. it's two weeks from the presidential debate between trump and biden. only two weeks from now? ah eat your wheaties. stay ♪ good morning, everybody. it's wednesday, september 16th, i'm yasmine va suz yan we want to begin with hurricane sally. the storm is moving slowly towards the northern gulf coast, bringing with it flooding rain and potentially life-threatening storm surge, particularly in parts of alabama and in florida's panhandle. want to start here with bill karins to give us a sense of thousand storm is moving and what exactly we can expect from this storm over the next 24 hours or so. bill, take us through this this morning. >> well, good