Texas Rep. Veronica Escobar is calling on the Department of Homeland Security watchdog to immediately look into Border Patrol facility conditions in the El Paso area, including an outrageous report that officials have held as many as 150 people with “flu-like conditions” in “a single holding area” amid the coronavirus crisis that has already hit other detention facilities across the U.S.
“Detainees report that the conditions at Border Patrol Station One are wholly inappropriate,” Rep. Escobar tells DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, noting that detained people have said they’ve lacked adequate access to the most basic but vital of items necessary to their well-being during this pandemic, including soap and toilet paper. Due to this crowding, detainees aren’t able to practice social distancing either, as recommended by the CDC.
Escobar further notes that CBP is failing to be transparent about the well-being of detainees and its own employees, writing that “While U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) offers publicly available data on its website relating to confirmed cases among detainees and staff, CBP has no such mechanism to date. In fact, CBP has refused to provide any data when requested explicitly. The health and safety of all is paramount, including for those in our custody.”
“Despite the urgent insistence of public health officials, thousands of people in ICE and CBP facilities are being denied basic protections to combat COVID-19, even access to soap to wash their hands in some instances,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas said in a statement. “We have heard many more disturbing stories in multiple facilities.” The group has also filed a complaint with Cuffari, saying “The COVID-19 public health emergency presents a particularly ‘grave risk of severe illness and death’ to people in immigration detention facilities like Border Patrol Station 1.”
“These facilities are ‘congregate environments—that is, places where people live, eat, and sleep in close proximity,” the complaint continues. “Such congregate environments present a heightened risk for COVID-19 transmission, as shown by the virus’s rapid spread on cruise ships and in nursing homes. The extremely high rate of transmission at the Rikers Island jail demonstrates the particular risk to people in detention facilities.”
While CBP won’t say if anyone in its custody have tested positive for COVID-19, as of April 4, 13 people in ICE custody have been confirmed to have tested positive, while 55 ICE employees have also tested positive, including seven who work at detention facilities. Despite an onslaught of calls demanding the agency release detainees as a way to control the pandemic, ICE has freed only a small number of people when it has thousands of people detained, many of whom don’t have to be detained in the first place.
“In the midst of a pandemic, it is urgent that your agency investigate these reports immediately,” Escobar tells Cuffari in her letter. “If CBP continues with this degree of inaction, there could be a severe outbreak of COVID-19 among this vulnerable population and throughout the entire El Paso region.”