大象传媒

The wife of a man who has been at ICE Northwest Processing Center for the past month says misinformation and as well as lack of information over the coronavirus is fueling panic and confusion among detainees.

The stories detainees are being told by officials at the ICE center keep changing, only adding to the confusion and fear, she says, asking that their names be withheld to prevent retaliation.

This past week, after inmates initiated a lunchtime hunger strike, demanding to be released with ankle bracelets or 鈥渟ent back to Mexico, or whatever country they were getting sent to, officers told them no one would be allowed to leave. They said, 鈥榯here are no airplanes, no flights, no transportation. Go back to your bed. There鈥檚 no COVID-19 in here.鈥欌��

Through tears, her husband told her: 鈥淲e鈥檙e telling them to get us out of here. Nobody wants to die in here.鈥�

Emerging stories about lack of action to prevent the spread of coronavirus among the detained and incarcerated are triggering a loud and growing call for action from families and advocates across the country. They want states and the federal government to reduce the number of people in immigrant detention centers as well as prisons and jails nationwide.

Specifically, they are seeking the release of all immigrants in detention, and they want jails and prisons to release older adults, those most medically vulnerable, and those posing no public threat, among other actions. The Department of Homeland Security鈥檚 own medical experts have now added their voices to the call, urging the department to consider releasing all immigrant detainees who don鈥檛 pose a risk to public safety 鈥�.鈥�

鈥淲e have always known our people detained are not safe under ICE custody,鈥� said Maru Mora Villalpando, founder of La Resistencia, a Washington-based grassroots organization that advocates for an end to detentions and deportations. 鈥淣ow that the world is almost at a standstill, ICE continues business as usual: immigration raids, detentions, medical neglect, deportations, terror.鈥�

Crowded conditions and limited access to medical care make any type of detention facility a cauldron for infectious disease, point out advocates such as Villalpando. And as the coronavirus continues to spread across the country corrections officials are apparently coming to recognize that the incarcerated people have no option for practicing social distancing.

In Los Angeles County, which has the most inmates of any county prison system in the United States, law enforcement agencies will . Cuyahoga County, where Cleveland is, to release low-level offenders to minimize a potential outbreak.

And in New York, which has the , the New York City Board of Correction said New York City inmates who are at higher risk from COVID-19 infection鈥攁nd make efforts to rapidly decrease the jail population.

鈥淭he city鈥檚 jails have particular challenges to preventing disease transmission on a normal day, and even more so during a public health crisis,鈥� the New York Board said in a statement.

In a , dozens of community advocates and organizations outlined a series of steps the state can take to #FlattenTheCurve on infection rates and protect the lives of those confined to jails and prisons. They included releasing people incarcerated for poverty violations, expanding preventative health care measures for those incarcerated, and expanding kiosks inside jails and prisons to allow more visits between inmates and their loved ones.

One detainee at the ICE Northwest Processing Center said she shared a pod with another woman who appeared to be suffering from the fever before being removed to isolation.

On March 13, two units of inmates at the state鈥檚 Monroe Correctional Complex were after a worker tested positive for COVID-19. On March 19, ICE revealed that a member of the health staff at the Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey for the coronavirus.

鈥淚t is apparent we are in a state of emergency,鈥� said JM Wong, an organizer with the Covid19mutualaid Instagram group, which also issued the call for action. 鈥淏ut that drastic urgency is not reflected in the courts, jails, and prison facilities.鈥�

And apparently not in detention centers either. Each day on average, some 40,000 immigrants are held in privately run detention centers as well as state-run jails and prisons across the country.

In to ICE Enforcement Acting Director Matthew T. Albence, Detention Watch Network and more than 800 partner organizations called for an end to all enforcement operations and widespread lockdowns inside the facilities and free phone and video calls for detainees, as well as free soap sanitizers and other hygiene products.

鈥淛ails, prisons, and detention centers are sites where people are acutely vulnerable to health complications and the impact of outbreaks,鈥� the network and partners say in the letter.

In 2018 and 2019, for example, the GEO Group-owned Northwest ICE Processing Center saw repeated , with these diseases spreading through multiple pods inside the facility. 鈥淐hoosing to deprive people of their freedom contributes to the already lethal conditions of mass confinement,鈥� Detention Watch said in its letter.

On Wednesday, ICE to pause immigration enforcement for non-criminal cases inside the country during the outbreak, but said nothing about releasing any detainees.

This week, the ACLU and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project in U.S. District Court for Western Washington against the agency on behalf of nine inmates at the Northwest ICE Processing Center 鈥攅ight of them members of La Resistencia. The plaintiffs are older adults and/or people with medical conditions such as lung disease and autoimmune disorders that make them a high risk of serious COVID-19 infection.

鈥淧eople who are confined in prisons, jails, and detention centers will find it virtually impossible to engage in the necessary social distancing and hygiene required to mitigate the risk of transmission, even with the best-laid plans,鈥� the suit says. 鈥淔or this reason, correctional public health experts have recommended the release from custody of people most vulnerable to COVID-19.鈥�

In its response, ICE argued that the implications for releasing detainees from a facility with no confirmed COVID-cases into a metropolitan area at epicenter of the U.S. outbreak are 鈥渟taggering.鈥�

ICE said that since February 2014, it has maintained a pandemic workforce protection plan, which it last updated in May 2017 and which provides specific guidance for biological threats such as COVID-19.

The agency also said it鈥檚 been tracking the outbreak since the initial report, 鈥渞egularly updating infection prevention and control protocols, and issuing guidance to staff for the screening and management of potential exposure among detainees.鈥�

On March 19, the federal district court ruled it would not immediately release detainees.

Loved ones of the detainees say they feel helpless.

Another relative, whose husband has been in the Northwest center since June, said he鈥檚 in his 50s and suffers from asthma. He was picked up after missing a court date and has a hearing scheduled for April.

In her phone conversation with him recently, she said, he downplayed his concerns so his family wouldn鈥檛 worry, though she can only imagine those worries are mounting.

鈥淗e told me they鈥檝e not been allowed outside for eight days,鈥� she says. 鈥淗ow am I feeling? I鈥檓 stressed and hoping there鈥檚 something that can be done to get him out of there,鈥� she says. 鈥淚鈥檓 worried about him. When he was at home and got asthma, it got really, really bad to the point where he couldn鈥檛 breathe. My fingers are crossed.鈥�