WASHINGTON (AP) — Pressure was mounting Wednesday on the Trump administration to release people from immigration prisons where at least one detainee has tested positive for Covid-19 and advocates fear tight quarters and overall conditions could cause rapid spread of the virus.
The United States is holding at least 37,000 people in immigration prisons. Detainees and advocates say many are vulnerable because of age and pre-existing medical conditions, and because they are often held in open rooms, beds 3 feet apart, and without masks or other protections.
"It's impossible to stay calm," said Marco Battistotti, an Italian who is among 170 people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Bristol County jail in Massachusetts. "People are panicking. People are in fear."
Battistotti, 54, was among about 100 detainees at the county jail near Cape Cod who signed a letter released by a local immigration attorney detailing conditions inside. They asked to be released to await decisions on their immigration cases.
"I don't want to die in an ICE jail," he said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. "Why can't I fight my case on the outside?"
The agency, which reported the positive test of a 31-year-old man from Mexico held in Bergen County, New Jersey on Tuesday, has announced steps to protect detainees and staff from the virus, but has not said whether it plans to review cases for possible release because of the pandemic. It did not respond to a request to comment on the complaints about conditions from the detainees and their advocates.
The administration has tried to balance its hard line on immigration and its response to the pandemic, with ICE announcing that it would "temporarily adjust" operations to focus on arresting people who pose a risk to public safety or are subject to mandatory detention because of a criminal record.
Mexican human rights workers, meanwhile, have protested that the United States is “returning to Mexico” thousands of people who have not been tests for Covid-19.
Human rights advocates, including the American Civil Liberties Union, filed lawsuits in California, Maryland, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, seeking court orders for the immediate release of people in immigration detention, especially those at risk because of their age or medical conditions.
Advocates have also asked a court in Los Angeles to order the Office of Refugee Resettlement to release to eligible sponsors around 1,200 immigrant children who were arrested without parents or legal guardians and have been held in government-contracted shelters for more than 30 days. They said two staff members at two such jails in New York have tested positive for Covid-19.
It's unclear how many immigration detainees overall are at high risk, but one California lawsuit had 13 plaintiffs, all older than 55.
A federal judge in Boston on Wednesday ordered the release of a 36-year-old man from the Dominican Republic who was in a local jail south of the city where an employee tested positive. The ACLU sued for the release of two others held there.
A Ninth Circuit panel in San Francisco on Monday, citing the "rapidly escalating public health crisis," ordered the immediate release of a 37-year-old woman who is fighting deportation to Mexico.