The number of immigrants infected with COVID-19 increases everyday in ICE facilities

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) is the entity in charge of immigration detention centers and border forces.

Thousands of immigrants are detained while waiting for a response to their immigration cases and their petition for legal residence.

Currently, due to Trump administration’s immigration policies, detention centers are overcrowded and there is not enough space for proper social distancing.

The arrival of the Coronavirus in North American territories

Since the massive COVID-19 outbreak reached the US, thousands of immigrant rights advocates have warned the government about the danger in ICE detention centers.

They argued that these establishments are possible hotbeds of the virus that spreads uncontrollably in overcrowded places.

They have even protested in their cars in front of immigration detention centers asking for government help to protect innocent families and federal employees.

At first, no one heeded the call of immigrant advocates, and now, detention centers have hundreds of COVID-19 cases.

More than 600 immigrants infected with Coronavirus in ICE centers

The latest figures show that more than 600 detained immigrants tested positive in the Coronavirus exam.

The number of infected increases exponentially and it is a matter of weeks before it reaches an uncontrollable mass spread.

ICE centers are more vulnerable than it seems for several reasons:

• They do not have enough medical personnel to help critically COVID-19 cases.
• There are no medical supplies to protect both detainees and federal employees.
• There is no possibility of social distancing to avoid massive contagion.
• The amount of COVID-19 tests available does not even reach half of the detainees. Therefore, the actual number of infected immigrants must be even higher today.
• If ICE employees continue to be infected, they will carry the virus to their homes, which is also an imminent danger to the local population and native/legal citizens.
• In-person appointments from the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) are temporarily suspended, meaning that all detained immigrants must remain in these centers until they receive a response to their cases and/or a hearing to expose their legal residence petitions.

The risk in immigration detention centers is notorious and the government must be aware of these figures in order to save as many lives as possible.

Aid to immigrants amid the global pandemic

After analyzing the numbers of infected immigrants in the detention centers, several judges decided to appeal in favor of immigrants and have created strategies to mitigate the impact of the virus is ICE facilities.

Let’s look at some of the strategies they propose:

• Three Immigration Detention Centers around the country must reduce the number of people held there from 1,400 to 350 each.
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• The judges suggest that ICE monitor immigrants without the need for them to be detained.
• Immigrants are not allowed to enter the country, therefore, detention centers cannot receive more people.
• Several courts around the country called for appropriate social distancing within detention centers to avoid mass contagion.
• ICE employees have more health protection tools to avoid being carriers of the virus.

What will happen to the detention centers?

The virus is already inside ICE facilities and there is nothing we can do to prevent it.

Most likely, the contagion figures will continue to grow exponentially over the next few weeks within immigration detention centers.

The most responsible solution is follow the correct guidelines to present a solid immigration case.

There is no need to go to an immigration detention center if the documentation is well structured when requesting residence in the Us.

For that, the best recommendation will always be to find help from a specialist.

If you have any questions about an immigration issue or relating to a case you may have currently in progress, then please don’t hesitate to contact us for a FREE Phone Consultation with one of our expert immigration attorneys.

Simply call Motion Law today at: (202) 918-1799.