Immigration and Customs Enforcement Creates Conditions for Outbreaks in Detention Centres
During the pandemic, when people worldwide are
practicing
social distancing, self-isolation and minimizing
any kind of
travel to stop the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S.
federal agency
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is
continuing its
brutal raids, mass detentions and deportations.
An April 13 article published by Mother
Jones reports
on how ICE's treatment of those infected by
COVID-19 in its
detention centres is creating a situation ripe for
an outbreak.
The article states:
"On its website, the Centers for Disease Control
and
Prevention (CDC) provides some commonsense
guidelines for prisons and
detention centres to curb the spread of COVID-19.
These
facilities, the CDC says, should avoid 'cohorting'
people who
have been in contact with someone infected with
the virus -- that
is, quarantining them together. The reasons are
obvious. Doing so
can 'transmit COVID-19 from those who are infected
to those who
are uninfected.'
 "Yet Immigration
and Customs Enforcement, which detains
immigrants and asylum seekers in facilities across
the country,
is following a rulebook directly at odds with the
CDC's advice.
ICE is relying heavily on cohorting because it
refuses to release
large numbers of people, despite admitting that it
often lacks
the ability to separate detainees it knows have
been exposed to
the new coronavirus.
"ICE usually houses detainees in dorms where
dozens of people
are held together in close quarters. Under ICE's
COVID-19 policy,
symptomatic detainees are removed and placed in
isolation. When
someone tests positive, the rest of the dorm is
quarantined
together, or 'cohorted,' for 14 days. From there,
detention
centre staff monitor to see if anyone else
develops symptoms.
Meanwhile, the quarantined detainees are in close
proximity and
touching the same surfaces -- often without
adequate access to
soap, cleaning supplies, masks, and gloves. If
another person
gets infected, that individual is isolated and the
quarantine
clock resets. The process, under ICE guidelines,
continues until
nobody is symptomatic for two weeks."
In an open letter sent to Acting Director of ICE
Matthew T.
Albence in mid-March, several medical
professionals call
on ICE to "release individuals and families from
immigration
detention while their legal cases are being
processed to prevent
the spread of COVID-19 and mitigate the harm of an
outbreak."
The doctors point out that "Detention facilities,
like the
jails and prisons in which they are housed, are
designed to
maximize control of the incarcerated population,
not to minimize
disease transmission or to efficiently deliver
health care. This
fact is compounded by often crowded and unsanitary
conditions,
poor ventilation, lack of adequate access to
hygienic materials
such as soap and water or hand sanitizers, poor
nutrition, and
failure to adhere to recognized standards for
prevention,
screening, and containment. The frequent transfer
of individuals
from one detention facility to another, and intake
of newly
detained individuals from the community further
complicates the
prevention and detection of infectious disease
outbreaks. A
timely response to reported and observed symptoms
is needed to
interrupt viral transmission yet delays in
testing, diagnosis and
access to care are systemic in ICE custody.
Further, given the
patchwork regulatory system, it is unclear whether
ICE or the
county and state health departments are
responsible for ensuring
public health oversight of facilities.
"For these reasons, transmission of infectious
diseases in
jails and prisons is incredibly common, especially
those
transmitted by respiratory droplets. [...]
COVID-19 threatens the
well-being of detained individuals, as well as the
corrections
staff who shuttle between the community and
detention
facilities.
"[W]e strongly recommend that ICE implement
community-based
alternatives to detention to alleviate the mass
overcrowding in
detention facilities. Individuals and families,
particularly the
most vulnerable -- the elderly, pregnant women,
people with
serious mental illness, and those at higher risk
of complications
-- should be released while their legal cases are
being processed
to avoid preventable deaths and mitigate the harm
from a COVID-19
outbreak."
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 15 - May 2, 2020
Article Link:
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Creates Conditions for Outbreaks in Detention Centres
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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