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Protect Immigrants and Asylum‐Seekers in ICE Detention from the COVID‐19 Pandemic

As the world continues to cope from the enduring COVID-19 pandemic, tens of thousands of individuals and families locked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been left behind to face these turbulent times alone, in detention facilities with inadequate medical care and crowded, tinderbox-like conditions that place them at heightened risk of illness and death. Thousands of people have already tested positive for COVID-19 and at least nine of them have tragically died after contracting the virus in detention.

Shocking recent reports of medical procedures without consent taking place in detention facilities are a grim reminder of this country’s long and horrific history of medical abuse, mistreatment, and neglect faced by Indigenous women, Black women and other women of color, incarcerated people, intersex people, and transgender people. They must also be viewed against a long history of medical abuse and neglect in ICE facilities.

All people should have the same access to care and safety — and immigrants and asylum-seekers must not be treated as an afterthought. They must be safe and freed now.

The U.S. government is responsible for the health and wellbeing of people in its custody and must take all steps to protect them from COVID-19. Many have long-standing family, faith, and other communities in the U.S. who could safely house them if they were released.

Tell ICE it must immediately release immigrants and asylum-seekers from immigration detention.

⬇ Make Your Voice Heard ⬇

Acting DHS Director

David

Pekoske

DHS

Dear Acting Director Pekoske,

In response to the humanitarian and public health challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, I am deeply concerned about the safety and wellbeing of immigrants and asylum-seekers detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It is critical you exercise your authority to ensure that ICE takes critical steps to mitigate the risk of illness, and even death, for detained individuals and families, as well as facility staff.

Detained individuals face grave risks if exposed to COVID-19 in immigration detention facilities, where conditions are well-documented to have substandard medical care, inadequate basic hygiene, and overcrowding. Many detained people are at heightened risk to COVID-19 due to their age or serious medical needs, and rapid spread of COVID-19 is already occurring. Thousands of people have already tested positive and at least nine have tragically died after contracting COVID-19 in immigration detention.

Many individuals and families detained by ICE came to the U.S. after fleeing from horrific violence, persecution, torture, and other severe human rights abuses in their home countries. They are simply seeking protection and must be allowed to pursue the right to seek asylum here in safety.

Many people in detention also have long-standing family, faith and other community ties in the U.S. who could house them if they were released.

I urge you to:

- Immediately release immigrants and asylum-seekers held in ICE federal detention facilities and county and local jails.

ICE is responsible for the health and safety of the immigrants and asylum-seekers in its custody and must take all appropriate steps to protect these individuals fduring the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sincerely,

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