A first-of-its-kind report from the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch, and National Immigrant Justice Center details how the Trump administration’s massive expansion of immigration detention facilities seemingly unaccountable to no one have “laid the groundwork” for the current COVID-19 crisis present at dozens of these sites across the country, where nearly 700 detainees have been confirmed positive, and many others are sick but have yet to be tested by officials.
“It is little coincidence that a disproportionate number of detention centers that now have confirmed cases of COVID-19 came online under the Trump administration,” the ACLU said in a blog post. “Our research of detention centers opened under the Trump administration exposed sordid conditions and inadequate medical care, abuse and retaliation against detained people who dared speak up against abuse, and the impossible odds for receiving release from detention. These conditions that have set up a tinderbox for COVID-19 to explode.”
Trump’s mass deportation agenda has meant a huge payday for private prison profiteers who have seen their business boom, the groups said, following the administration ending an Obama-era order that had begun to phase out the use of private prisons. Now, more than 80% of immigrants who are arrested and thrown into detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement are being held in these facilities, the group said, making these companies a fortune at the expense of taxpayers. But worse than the financial costs are the human costs. Even before the pandemic, the ACLU said, detained people have been locked up in inhumane—and deadly—conditions.
“Between January 2017 and April 2020, 39 adults died in ICE custody or immediately after being released,” the report said. “Between January 2017 and March 2020,12 people have died as a result of apparent suicide in immigration detention—accounting for a third of adult immigrant deaths in detention.” Earlier this year, an investigation found the suicide of an asylum-seeker last October could have been prevented if officials had actually followed their own protocols. Roylan Hernández-Díaz had reportedly grown despondent over his ongoing jailing at a privately run facility even though he’d passed his initial asylum interview.
“Medical units appeared dangerously unprepared for emergencies,” the report continued. “For example, medical staff at Richwood Correctional Center told us that a request to see an outside doctor to set a broken bone could be seen ‘within a week.” The report further notes that filthy and unsanitary conditions at these facilities have been set to be a breeding ground for disease. “At Jackson Parish, we heard multiple complaints that the facility failed to provide people with soap for bathing or cleaning supplies,” the report said.
Unsurprisingly, a number of facilities that opened under this administration are now being hit by the novel coronavirus. “While researching this report, our teams conducted site visits to five detention centers in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arizona, all opened under the Trump administration,” the ACLU post continued. “Three of these five detention facilities now have confirmed COVID-19 cases, including the Richwood Correctional Center, where two officers have already died from the virus. Today, 10 of the 28 ICE detention facilities with confirmed cases of COVID-19 are facilities that have opened under the Trump administration.”
These sites know exactly what they’re doing—even their own workers have sued them over dangerous facility conditions—which is why they tried to block the groups’ investigative efforts. “ICE is not known for its transparency during 'normal' circumstances, but the limited access we had for this report—to detention facilities, to detained people—no longer exists,” said Eunice Cho, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s National Prison Project. ICE continues to believe it’s accountable to no one, all the while operating on billions in taxpayer funds.
“The Trump administration and its callous indifference to immigrants’ rights and their humanity have allowed already bad conditions in the detention system to deteriorate even further,” said Grace Meng, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch. “But the administration is not the only one responsible for this abusive system—Congress should push back on the administration’s demands and reduce funding for immigration detention and enforcement.” The full “Justice-Free Zones” report is available here.