A number of American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) affiliates have sued Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for the release of four people from two privately operated immigration detention facilities in southern California, the latest in a slew of lawsuits filed by advocates in the state and nationwide in recent weeks demanding the urgent release of detainees from ICE custody amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
“Because of their acute medical conditions—including leukemia, lung disease and HIV infection—the plaintiffs are at increased danger of contracting and dying from COVID-19 in these ICE detention centers, where as many as 60-100 people share living quarters,” a statement said. “Detainees sleep in bunk beds only a few feet apart and share common areas, such as eating tables, showers, toilets and sinks. The recent positive test of a staff member at the Otay Mesa Detention Center heightens the risks and puts lives in immediate danger.”
The ACLU Foundation of San Diego & Imperial Counties, ACLU Foundation Immigrants’ Rights Project, ACLU Foundation National Prison Project, and the ACLU Foundation Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender & HIV Project say in the complaint that while “the COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed most aspects of everyday life, with public and private institutions dramatically altering daily operations” at Otay Mesa and Imperial Regional Detention Facility, “ICE has failed to meaningfully respond to protect the health and safety of people in its custody.”
“People in congregate environments—places where people live, eat, and sleep in close proximity—face increased risk of contracting COVID-19, as already evidenced by the rapid spread of the virus in cruise ships, nursing homes, and jails,” the complaint said. There’s no such thing as being able to social distance in a crowded detention facility, with the groups saying detainees are not being provided with enough soap, hand sanitizer, or cleaning supplies to stay safe. Conditions, the groups continue, “are tinderboxes for rapid widespread infection within and beyond the facilities.”
A lawsuit filed by 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 late last month urged the release of 13 people due to their advanced age and underlying medical conditions from two other facilities in the state, noting similar crowded conditions that leave detainees within arm’s reach of each other. “Facility staff have rebuffed their inquiries about COVID-19 risks and precautions,” the lawsuit said, “and Defendants have rejected their attorneys’ requests for humanitarian release.”
Meanwhile, the count of ICE detainees confirmed to have tested positive for COVID-19 continues to grow, with officials reporting 13 cases spread across detention facilities in five states, including Otay Mesa. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported earlier this month that detainees there “had already reached new levels of anxiety” following a second staffer testing positive when they found out a detainee had as well. “One of them was Alex, an asylum seeker from El Salvador who described himself and his unit-mates as being distraught over the announcement,” The San Diego Union-Tribune continued.
“Unless this Court intervenes to order the releases of the Plaintiffs, they, along with many other detained individuals, will face dramatically increased chances of contracting COVID-19, becoming seriously ill, and dying,” the lawsuit continues. With ICE continuing to act much too slowly, it’s the courts that must help save lives. “ICE detention is cruel and unnecessary under ordinary circumstances,” Monika Langarica, immigrants’ rights staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of San Diego & Imperial Counties, said in the statement. “During this global pandemic, it can be a death sentence for people with health problems and serious illnesses.”
