Even in the best of times, the subject of detainees in U.S. immigration detention centers has a way of polarizing us like few others.
The battle lines are too often drawn over how best to curb illegal immigration in this country and how best to maintain our humanity in protecting the health and safety of those we take into custody.
But with the news that the number of coronavirus cases continues to rapidly climb in detention centers in Texas and across the country, now is the time for less political pandering and more effective leadership in finding solutions. We’re in dire need of a coherent plan of action to slow the spread among detainees while protecting public health in the communities in which these facilities are located.
The spread of this virus among the more than 31,000 U.S immigration detainees should not have come as a surprise. The virus feeds on close contact prevalent in the facilities where detainees live in tight quarters and where social distancing is all but impossible.
It’s alarming that as of this week, only about 2% of detainees across the country have been tested. Of the 705 tested, 425 (60%) have tested positive.
At the Prairieland Detention Center southwest of Dallas alone, the number of detainees who tested positive increased from three to 41 in about two weeks. Many advocates trace that growth to 20 detainees who were transferred in the middle of the night by bus or plane from Pennsylvania, where two detainees died of the disease.
It highlights worries over a chaotic system that allows multiple transfers of detainees from border stations to county jails to detention centers across the country. And we worry about the continued practice of minors who turn 18, or “age out,” being transferred from refugee centers to jails where the virus is also spreading.
It’s the reason we support a federal judge’s ruling that Immigration and Customs Enforcement review cases and consider the release of all people in detention whose age or health conditions put them in danger of contracting the coronavirus. It makes sense to release people who pose little risk to the community.
What’s more, this haphazard system needs consistent federal guidelines and protocols on transfers and releases. A detainee’s health and safety shouldn’t be left up to whether or not a nonprofit or advocate group is successful in a lengthy court fight.
For their part, ICE officials report that they are working at social distancing in their facilities and have voluntarily released dozens of low-risk detainees.
Still as with all aspects of this pandemic, we repeat our call for increased testing. Knowing who in the system and who among those being released has the virus is a major component to slowing the spread.
There will be plenty of time for political debate around broader immigration issues in the months to come. Right now, we have a responsibility to focus our collective energies on containing the spread of this virus and protecting the health of all who live in this country.
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