Immigration and Customs Enforcement has confirmed that a staffer at a New Jersey immigration detention facility that is currently jailing more than 200 people has been tested for COVID-19 and is in self-quarantine, Documented reports: “’As of March 13, 2020, there have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 at Elizabeth Detention Center,’ ICE said in a statement.”
Emily Kassie of Marshall Project also confirmed the news, tweeting “an ICE field director said a staff member was self-isolating for COVID-19 symptoms. Two facility staff confirmed with me. The supervisor I was transferred to abruptly hung up.” The facility is operated by private prison profiteer CoreCivic, which already has a history of neglecting detainees, including kids. Following the reports, immigrant rights advocates re-upped calls on ICE to use its discretion to parole immigrants now.
“With the news that a staff member at the Elizabeth Detention Center is exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms, the moment to take action is now,” advocacy group Make The Road New Jersey said in a statement. “ICE must release all immigrants in detention to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in New Jersey. … Dozens of immigrants have died in ICE and CBP detention in the past two years due to negligent medical care. Detention is inhumane and unsafe, and ICE is ill-equipped to provide adequate care and ensure the safety of detainees. Detainees must be released for their safety.”
In a letter last week, House Oversight and Reform Committee Democrats called on ICE and Customs and Border Protection to share their plans for a potential coronavirus outbreak in their facilities, writing, “DHS detention facilities may be especially vulnerable to the spread of coronavirus because of the administration’s excessive use of detention.” That excessive use only exacerbates ongoing conditions: Kassie tweeted the Elizabeth facility “has drawn criticism for its conditions in the past. In 2018, a Human Rights First report noted detainees at the facility complained of maggots in the food and poor medical access.”
Kassie further reported that “the Warden at Elizabeth said he could not confirm whether the staff was a medical worker or whether anyone else was being tested,” and that while ICE claimed “there were no detainees in ICE custody with confirmed cases of COVID-19,” they also “declined to comment on whether other detention facility staff across the country had been tested for the virus.” When border officials have repeatedly rejected calls to have children in their custody vaccinated against the flu—a shot that is obviously much more readily available than COVID-19 testing—there’s plenty of reason to suspect ICE won’t comment because it hasn’t tested most facility staff or detainees.
Advocates like The Bronx Defenders, Brooklyn Defender Services, and The Legal Aid Society have called on ICE to at the very least parole people “who are at the highest risk of serious health complications if they contract COVID-19,” including “older adults, pregnant women, people with respiratory conditions, people who are immunocompromised (including people who are HIV+), people with severe mental health conditions, and people with other chronic health conditions that make them particularly vulnerable to infection.”
ICE has every ability and power to do this. ICE decides who it detains, who it keeps detained, who it deports, and who it can release to their homes and communities while they wait for their U.S. immigration court dates. ICE can start releasing people today. “Instead,” The Bronx Defenders, Brooklyn Defender Services, and The Legal Aid Society continued, “we have learned through the people we represent who are incarcerated in these jails that they are not receiving basic disinfectants, soap, hand sanitizer, or even toilet paper.”