Release ICE detainees due to coronavirus? Lawmakers and advocates take up the call
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is facing mounting pressure from lawmakers and immigration rights advocates to release dozens of nonviolent detainees amid the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
Advocates say those held at immigration detention centers are “especially vulnerable” to contracting the disease that has infected nearly 260,000 people in the U.S., according to the latest stats published by Johns Hopkins University. Lawmakers, including Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson (D), are now pushing for the detainees to be released so that they can await their hearings at home during the growing pandemic.
“ICE must do its part to protect their workforce, immigrants, and our communities during this troubling time,” Thompson, the longest serving African-American official in the state, said in a joint statement with fellow Rep. Kathleen Rice of New York.
“It’s clear that ICE detention facilities, including local and privately contracted facilities, are unable to properly follow CDC standards set to combat the spread of the coronavirus,” the statement continued. “Without action, these facilities will inevitably become breeding grounds for the virus.”
There are currently six confirmed cases of the disease among ICE detainees in Arizona and New Jersey, according to the agency’s website. More than 40 ICE employees have also tested positive for COVID-19, including five staffers who work in the agency’s detention facilities.
Together, lawmakers and advocates with groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and Congressional Hispanic Caucus have ratcheted up their calls for ICE to consider alternatives to detention. The agency is among a laundry list of defendants named in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday requesting the “immediate relief” of 17 detainees housed at ICE facilities in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama amid growing fears over the spread of the virus.
Lawyers argued the plaintiffs’ ages and health histories put them at increased risk of serious injury or death if they were to catch COVID-19.
A similar lawsuit was filed by the ACLU in late March calling for the release of 13 immigrants at an ICE facility in Bakersfield, California, citing unsafe conditions, McClatchy News reports.
Eunice Cho, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project, echoed these same concerns and underscored the risk of a potential detention center outbreak.
“We know that as our medical experts have said, it’s not a question of if, but when COVID actually reaches the facility,” Cho said, according to The Hill. “And the danger is what happens once a COVID is inside of the facility. I think we all can see the danger that would happen in that case — people are in congregate environments in these detention centers.”
In a press call with reporters Tuesday, Democratic Rep. and CHC chairman Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) noted that detainees have staged hunger strikes and other forms of protest “to be released on concern for their life and subpar detention conditions,” The Hill reported.
Some inmates have also complained they don’t have the necessary supplies to clean or sanitize their living spaces, National Immigrant Justice Center attorney Tania Linares Garcia told NBC News. New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has argued that the conditions pose a serious danger to detainees’ health and well being.
“This is a humanitarian crisis that is right on our doorstep,” she said, according to the outlet. “A decision to do nothing is a decision to do harm.”
ICE has refused to bend to public pressure, however. A spokeswoman for the agency told The Hill that releases are determined on a “case-by-case” basis.
“When making such decisions, ICE officers weigh a variety of factors, including the person’s criminal record, immigration history, ties to the community, risk of flight, and whether he or she poses a potential threat to public safety,” spokeswoman Danielle Bennett said via email.
She added: “ICE also routinely makes custody re-determinations of those in detention, based on individual circumstances, and may release detainees onto alternatives to detention (ATD) and other monitoring programs, for a variety of reasons.”