Coronavirus could pose problem in ICE jails, immigration courts

Immigrants held in U.S. detention centers have been particularly vulnerable to the spread of communicable diseases - including thousands who were put under quarantine last spring for mumps, measles, flu and other illnesses - and it is unclear whether the coronavirus could pose a serious concern for U.S. authorities and the tens of thousands of foreigners in their custody.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement currently detains nearly 38,000 people in more than 130 private and state-run jails and prisons across the country, many of which sit in rural areas and operate with minimal public oversight.

Jenny Burke, an ICE spokeswoman, said Thursday that aspects of the agency's pandemic workforce protection plan, first developed in 2014, have been in effect since January to prevent and mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus among the detainee population and staff.

She said that since the onset of reports of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, ICE epidemiologists "have been tracking the outbreak, regularly updating infection prevention and control protocols, and issuing guidance to ICE Health Service Corps staff for the screening and management of potential exposure among detainees."

ICE officials said that as of March 3, four detainees had met the criteria for coronavirus testing, but none have tested positive. The number of confirmed cases across the United States has jumped from a few dozen to more than a thousand since then, but the agency declined to provide more recent figures for its impact on the detainee population.

Immigration advocates say they are concerned about the potentially devastating impact a coronavirus outbreak could have inside the U.S. government's crowded immigration jails.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and Human Rights Watch this week called on the Trump administration to develop a strategy to prevent and mitigate such an outbreak at facilities that have long been plagued by allegations of detainee abuse and inadequate medical care.

"People in detention are highly vulnerable to outbreaks of contagious illnesses. They are housed in close quarters and are often in poor health," the groups wrote in a letter to ICE officials overseeing an ICE processing center in Adelanto, California. "Without the active engagement of the detention center's administration, they have little ability to inform themselves about preventive measures, or to take such measures if they do manage to learn of them. We are particularly concerned about the health and safety of the people detained at Adelanto, given the facility's demonstrated failure to provide adequate medical care in the past."

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The groups sent similar letters to other ICE detention facilities, calling on ICE to educate detainees and staff about proper hygiene measures to reduce the spread of coronavirus in ICE facilities; provide sufficient supplies for handwashing and cleaning; develop plans to screen and test for the virus, as well as, contain and treat the infected; and develop staffing contingency plans for the possibility that significant numbers of ICE detention staff will fall ill from the virus.

ICE officials said the agency has 20 detention facilities run by its Health Service Corps, including 16 that are equipped with airborne infection isolation rooms, where officials said they plan to house detainees deemed at risk for covid-19 or displaying symptoms. Officials said ICE detention staff also have received guidance on the use of protective equipment.

During a surge of border apprehensions last spring, ICE placed between 4,000 and 6,000 detainees in quarantine as a result of mumps, measles, flu and other communicable disease outbreaks, ICE's acting director, Matthew Albence, told lawmakers during a congressional hearing Wednesday.

"We have extensive experience with regard to keeping them isolated so that doesn't spread, and we also have extensive medical experience," Albence said, citing the agency's medical staff and Public Health Service Corps personnel.

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Government investigators, along with immigration advocates and attorneys, have repeatedly voiced concerns about inadequate medical care in ICE detention facilities, including the alleged mishandling of infectious disease outbreaks.

Investigators and attorneys have previously reported serious patterns of neglect at several ICE facilities across the country, including denied or ignored requests for medical care, limited dissemination of vaccinations for the flu and other infectious diseases, poorly enforced or mismanaged quarantines, and overcrowding.

ICE has reported at least 21 deaths in its facilities over the past two years - eight of which occurred in the past six months alone - including, most recently, a 22-year-old female Guatemalan asylum seeker who died of hepatitis, septic shock and liver failure, after being detained at a Texas facility for more than six months; and a 63-year-old man held in Florida, who died in January after weeks of respiratory distress and other serious symptoms of illness. In December, a 40-year-old, also held in Florida, died of septic shock.

Advocacy groups and Democratic lawmakers have urged ICE to reduce the number of people in its custody by releasing particularly vulnerable people - many of ICE's detainees are asylum seekers with no previous criminal record - to minimize the crowded conditions that facilitate the spread of the disease, and ensure that people with underlying conditions get access to care.

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Albence told lawmakers Wednesday that his agency would not release vulnerable detainees as a preventive measure against coronavirus: "The people that we have in detention are there because they are public safety threats or flight risks."

On Thursday, the union that represents immigration judges across the country called on the Justice Department to suspend hearings in a wide swath of cases out of fear that such proceedings could help spread the coronavirus.

In a letter to the director of the Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review, immigration judge Ashley Tabaddor said that all of the "non-detained master calendar dockets" - essentially hearings for people not in federal custody - "must be completely suspended because they present a continuing and unacceptable risk in the current environment."

Tabbador, the head of the National Association of Immigration Judges, said the dockets typically bring 50 or more respondents into each courtroom, many of whom have recently traveled internationally, plus attorneys and other family members. She said that the union had been informed Wednesday that one attorney in a March 10 hearing reported having flu-like symptoms and was concerned about a coronavirus infection.

"This is exactly the type of situation the White House, CDC and other public health authorities urge us to avoid, and we trust that you will agree that it is untenable and irresponsible in light of the current spread of COVID-19 infections across the country," Tabbador wrote.

Immigration judges in the U.S. are not independent, instead reporting to the Justice Department, and like any union, the one representing the judges is often critical of management. Most recently, the association highlighted publicly that judges were directed to take down signage about how to prevent the spread of covid-19, prompting the department to reverse course and allow the signs to be put up. The association also has called repeatedly on the Executive Office for Immigration Review to provide its judges more clarity on how they can manage their courtrooms to prevent the spread of covid-19, and as of Thursday, said they had received no response.

"They have provided absolutely no useful guidance to us," said Samuel Cole, an immigration judge and the association's communications director. "It is unique because we have very large hearings, where a lot of people from all over the world who have been traveling internationally come together and wait for their time to be called in front of a judge. And so just the size of the crowds that have to congregate together makes us unique and particularly problematic."

Immigration attorney Matthew Archambeault said that on Thursday, immigration judges in Newark, New Jersey, allowed attorneys to come into court while their clients waited outside to try to prevent people from having close contact. But that, he said, left the waiting room outside packed with dozens of people.

"I'm worried about myself; I'm worried about my family," Archambeault said. "I have my mother in law at home, who is elderly, and she's not in the best of health."

A Justice Department spokesman did not immediately comment on the union's latest letter.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which includes Border Patrol authorities, also grappled with allegations of harsh conditions, and inadequate sanitation and medical care for migrants detained in CBP facilities along the U.S.-Mexico border, particularly during last year's surge in border crossings, when border infrastructure was overwhelmed.

A CBP spokesperson said border agents are working to identify "individuals who have traveled from or transited through countries affected by COVID-19."

“Individuals apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol between the ports of entry with symptoms of illness are referred to the CDC or local health officials for additional health screening,” the spokesperson said. “U.S. Border Patrol takes all necessary precautions to ensure that no communicable diseases are spread across populations in custody.”