The rate of COVID-19 among migrants in detention centers, including Otay Mesa in South San Diego, increased by 940 percent in the last 37 days, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) reported Tuesday in announcing it filed a class-action lawsuit.
“Since January 3 of this year, Covid infections have increased by more than 940 percent in detention facilities,” the ACLU stated.
“As of early January, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had administered booster shots to only 671 people in detention, despite the fact that an average of 22,000 people are detained in custody every day,” the organization added.
“Failing to provide booster shots is irresponsible, cruel, and a violation of people's rights, and that's why we're suing,” said attorney Eunice Cho.
The class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of five “medically vulnerable people detained by ICE who requested and were denied their Covid booster shots,” according to Cho. These people had been diagnosed with medical conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and tuberculosis, all vulnerable to serious illness or even death in the event of a Covid infection.
“Our litigation requires that our clients receive booster shots,” Cho said.
But although the lawsuit is in the name of only five people, its result could modify internal ICE regulations for detention centers.
“ICE currently does not have policies or procedures in place to ensure that eligible individuals detained in its detention centers are identified or receive booster shots,” Cho said.
Not providing this care to people trapped in these detention centers is unconscionable, and is further proof that our entire immigration detention system is fundamentally inhumane.
He also opined that "our government should release people right now, both as a public health measure in the pandemic and forever."
Instead, the number of people detained as immigrants "has increased by more than 50 percent since President Joe Biden took office, most in prisons run by private corporations," the ACLU said.
