By Jackie Lozano, ACLU-WV Immigrants’ Rights Coordinator
Even in normal times, the detention centers run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are overcrowded, poorly ventilated, and unsanitary.
But in a pandemic, the situation becomes much more serious.
On any given day, ICE facilities house some 36,000 individuals – from asylum seekers to undocumented workers swept up in raids. At its peak last year, ICE had 50,000 people in its custody.
Overseen by an uncaring bureaucracy, these cramped prisons can easily become tinderboxes of infection, and thus, a threat to the health and safety of everyone.
While there are no ICE detention centers in West Virginia, people are regularly temporarily detained in our state’s jails for alleged immigration violations. And the enormous rate of arrests by ICE in our state helps feed the facilities in other parts of our country.
Those arrests should stop immediately in the interest of public health.
Despite President Trump’s pledge to go after “bad hombres,” the overwhelming majority of people arrested by ICE pose absolutely no safety threat.
With hundreds of confirmed cases of COVID-19 among detainees and dozens of staff testing positive, the government has finally begun to release detainees over the last couple of weeks out of fears the virus could become uncontrollable. Each released detainee was first evaluated for -- among other things -- potential threat to public safety, flight risk, and national security concerns.
If none of these people posed a safety or security risk, then why were they being held in cages in the first place?
Mass immigrant detention is a relatively new concept in the United States. Like so many other harmful policies, we are rightly reconsidering detention in light of this pandemic.
Soon things will return to normal. But let’s hope this new normal no longer includes locking people up for being born in the wrong place or for wanting a better future.
In the meantime, ICE agents in West Virginia should do their part to flatten the curve by ceasing arrests and raids.
Everyone’s health is at risk.