ICE Detainees are Blowing the Whistle
People in immigration detention are going on hunger strike to protest poor COVID-19 prevention measures inside facilities. As of this week, at least 24 ICE detention facilities have reported cases of COVID-19.
Some jails have attempted to curb the virus’s spread by releasing a small portion of inmates, but prisoner rights advocates and other experts say it’s not happening fast enough. Meanwhile, immigrant detention centers — notorious for overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and insufficient health care — are releasing very few immigrants and most under judge’s orders.
Last month, guards pepper-sprayed migrants at the South Texas Detention Complex in Pearsall, Texas, after 60 people demanded release. And for two weeks, several people at that facility refused to eat. Detainees at the aforementioned Hudson County and Essex County jails and one other facility also staged hunger strikes, asking for release, as well as toilet paper, soap and hand sanitizer.
Other migrants have reported conditions at their facilities to the media. At the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Evangeline Parish, women used video visitations to speak with reporters at the Intercept. One woman who works in the kitchen told reporters that another woman who works with her has fallen ill with symptoms consistent with COVID-19. Migrants at the LaSalle ICE Processing Center in Jena, Louisiana, told reporters that staff hasn’t provided them with cleaning supplies and isn’t implementing social distancing. Last month, four women were pepper-sprayed after protesting at a briefing on coronavirus preparations.
"Everything that applies to everyone on the outside doesn't apply to us in here," Marlene Seo, a woman detained at LaSalle, told CBS News. "We are allowed to be 80 [people] grouped together, sneezing, coughing … They're desperate to get out of here.”
For a detailed look at COVID-19 responses in immigrant detention facilities, Freedom for Immigrants, a California nonprofit, is mapping COVID-19 reports.
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