The Trump administration has been slapped with yet another lawsuit demanding the immediate release of immigrant detainees from two California facilities due to the coronavirus public health crisis. “Because of their advanced age and underlying medical conditions, the 13 plaintiffs are especially vulnerable to the potentially fatal COVID-19 infection while they are confined in crowded and unsanitary conditions where social distancing is not possible,” said a statement from the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, one of the groups suing on behalf of more than a dozen detained people.
Plaintiff Sofia Bahena Ortuño said in the lawsuit that she’s “extremely worried about the coronavirus because I have been told by a lot of people that I am at risk of having a very serious reaction to COVID-19 because of my other health conditions and my age.” The 64-year-old farm worker suffers from hypothyroidism and diabetes and has been detained since October. “I have seen some of the officers at the Mesa Verde detention center coughing and not wearing masks. They also keep coming to work. I am worried how this will affect me.”
This is the latest lawsuit in recent days seeking the release of people from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. has now topped 55,000. Earlier this month, groups sued for the freedom of detainees who are at serious risk of health complications or death in the event of infection in Washington state, while another suit filed by groups last week demands the release of parents and kids from three migrant family jails in Texas and Pennsylvania. A third suit filed just yesterday seeks the release of vulnerable detainees from Maryland facilities.
Plaintiffs seeking release from the California facilities say conditions make it impossible to practice social distancing and other safety measures recommended by the CDC, say the ACLU Foundations of Northern California and Southern California, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, and Lakin & Wille LLP in the lawsuit.
“Each of the Plaintiffs is of advanced age and/or suffers underlying health conditions which make them particularly vulnerable to severe and rapidly progressing effects of COVID-19, including death,” the lawsuit said. “Yet these Plaintiffs remain detained with the general population in both facilities, sleeping in bunks within arms-reach of other detainees and with no choice but to use shared communal dining, bathing, and recreation areas. Facility staff have rebuffed their inquiries about COVID-19 risks and precautions, and Defendants have rejected their attorneys’ requests for humanitarian release.”
The lawsuit notes that “many of California’s largest jails have released people detained in the criminal justice system to protect those people and the community from COVID-19,” including 300 from Alameda County’s Santa Rita Jail and over 1,000 from Los Angeles County. The Kern County Jail, located just minutes from the Mesa Verde facility, has released dozens of detainees, the lawsuit said. “Law enforcement and jail officials in New Jersey, New York City, Cleveland, Nashville, Houston, San Antonio, Charlotte, and numerous other jurisdictions are releasing both civil detainees and, in many cases, people serving sentences for criminal convictions, because of the threat COVID-19 poses inside jails.”
Remember, ICE could easily do the same as jails and release people back to their homes. Instead, this out-of-control agency is refusing to release even just kids and their parents as a number of ICE employees and now one detainee in New Jersey have tested positive for coronavirus. “Locking up immigrants in for-profit prisons and county jails has always been senseless, cruel, and dangerous. Now, it looks to be deadly on a massive scale,” said Bree Bernwanger, a senior staff attorney at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.
“The clock is ticking,” the lawsuit continued. “On March 22, 2020, the number of worldwide diagnoses of the coronavirus reached 300,000. This is double the number from a week before. The United States has the third largest number of diagnoses in the world. As of Monday, March 22, there were more than 30,000 diagnosed cases within the United States, and more than 375 deaths. By the time this Court reads this complaint, there will be more diagnoses, and more deaths, with no end in sight.” Free them now—too much time has already been wasted.