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A group of immigrants at the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center have filed a petition saying ICE’s detention of them puts them and other detainees at risk for a coronavirus outbreak and they are asking to be released so they can best protect themselves.
The ICE detention coronavirus risk petition was filed by Karlena Dawson, Alfredo Espinoza Esparza, Norma Lopez-Nunez, and many others all of whom are detained by ICE.
They have filed their petition with the help of several civil rights nonprofits including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, and the ACLU of Washington.
The plaintiffs are immigrants who say that they are at risk for a coronavirus outbreak and infection in their detention center. The detainees say that they are particularly at risk for infection by COVID-19 because they are older adults or have serious medical conditions that can put them at risk for a serious, even deadly COVID-19 infection.
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Allegedly, these conditions include lung disease, heart disease, kidney disease, autoimmune disorders, epilepsy, spinal cord injury, hypertension, and asthma.
The detainees assert that ICE is not equipped to handle a potential outbreak, noting that the facilities have little medical care, individuals are forced to be in close quarters with one another, and there are few opportunities for surface disinfection.
To support their claim that detention centers are unprepared for COVID-19, the immigrants note that detention centers have been the site of serious outbreaks in the past, including an H1N1 influenza outbreak in 2009.
They explain that in addition they are put at further risk because they are in a congregate environment, which has already shown to put people at a higher risk for infection.
They state that their ICE detention center, the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center, is close to the Washington metropolitan era. The immigrant detainees call this area “the epicenter of the largest COVID-19 outbreak in the United States, and one of the largest known outbreaks in the world.”
Allegedly, it is virtually impossible for the detainees to engage in hygiene practices and social distancing that are necessary to prevent the spread of the virus. They note that, because there is no vaccine or cure for COVID-19, these preventative measures are the only available defense against the virus.
The detainees say that their temporary release from the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center would protect not only themselves, but other detainees, as well as the general public, as it would help slow the spread of COVID-19 infection through the population.
The ICE detainees petition notes that correctional public health experts have already recommended that the people most vulnerable to COVID-19 should be released from custody. Based on this recommendation, the detainees ask to be temporarily released from detention.
The COVID-19 detention center risk petition asserts the Immigration and Customers Enforcement (ICE) would be violating the Eighth Amendment to hold at-risk immigrants in detention, where they could contract a serious infection and be unable to access necessary medical care and equipment for treatment.
The immigrants go on to call ICE detention practices cruel and unusual punishment. They say that the Eighth Amendment protects against cruel and unusual punishment, even if harm has not yet been done.
Although a COVID outbreak has not yet occurred in the detention center, the detainees argue that putting them at future risk constitutes a violation of the amendment.
The COVID-19 Tacoma detention center petition also asserts that the immigrants’ detention represents a violation of their Fifth Amendment rights. They say that their right to constitutional protections even when they are in custody are guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment.
The coronavirus detention center petition also notes that the Supreme Court has determined that people who are held in civil detention are entitled to “more considerate treatment” than those in criminal detention, but claims that the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center does not uphold this standard.
The immigrants are represented by David C. Fathi, Eunice H. Cho, Omar C. Jadwat, Michael Tan, My Khanh Ngo, Enoka Herat and John Midgley of the ACLU, and Matt Adams, Aaron Korthuis and Tim Henry Warden-Hertz of NWIRP.
The Tacoma Northwest Detention Center Coronavirus Infection Risk Petition is Karlena Dawson, et al. v. Nathalie Asher, et al., Case No. 2:20-cv-00409, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
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3 thoughts onICE Detainees Ask For Release Due to Coronavirus Risk
No matter what reason you give they are humans that has been caught in a unjust system.Their are people who were here before covid 19 hit.Just as you want a better life they want the same.They did not choose their standard of life it was chosen for them born in poverty was not a choice it was given to them
No one choose to be slave it was born into
So choose your words more wisely this is GOD word not man
Detainees are in no way different than people being hospitalized for an illness. They should not have come here in the first place. They knew the consequences and should accept their punishment. If they get released they will only run, just to get caught again in the future. Waste of our tax dollars.
No matter what reason you give they are humans that has been caught in a unjust system.Their are people who were here before covid 19 hit.Just as you want a better life they want the same.They did not choose their standard of life it was chosen for them born in poverty was not a choice it was given to them
No one choose to be slave it was born into
So choose your words more wisely this is GOD word not man