Washington, May 21 (IANS): US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutting down two detention centres run by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after allegations of abuse at both facilities.

Mayorkas said in a statement on Thursday that "this marks an important first step" in making "lasting improvements to our civil immigration detention system", reports Xinhua news agency.

"DHS detention facilities and the treatment of individuals in those facilities will be held to our health and safety standards," said the statement.

"Where we discover they fall short, we will continue to take action as we are doing today."

In a class-action lawsuit filed in December 2020, several women accused that they were ordered to have non-consensual gynaecological procedures, including hysterectomies, at the Irwin County Detention Centre in Georgia state.

Also in December 2020, the Massachusetts Civil Rights Division issued a report saying that the Bristol County Sheriff's Office used "excessive and disproportionate" force in response to a disturbance in May 2020 with some immigrant detainees at the Carreiro Immigration Detention Centre, according to a USA Today report.