Battles escalate over virus dangers

Legal battles escalate over virus dangers to immigration detainees

An immigrant detained in New Jersey is the first such confirmed COVID-19 case, ICE says

By JOSH GERSTEIN

A legal campaign to force the release of at-risk immigration detainees escalated Tuesday as officials announced the first confirmed case of coronavirus in a prisoner being held for immigration violations.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement revealed that a 31-year-old Mexican national held at the Bergen County, N.J., Jail tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The agency provided few details but said the individual “has been quarantined and is receiving care.” ICE also said it has suspended sending immigration detainees to that jail.

The announcement came as one lawsuit pressing for release of immigration detainees because of the virus got a court date and another suit was filed in a bid to spur such releases.

District Judge James Boasberg in Washington set a Monday afternoon hearing on a request for a temporary restraining order that would spring 37 immigrant families held at detention centers in Texas and Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile, in California, lawyers filed suit Tuesday to try to win freedom for 13 immigration detainees at facilities in Bakersfield and Yuba County. The lawyers wrote in the suit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, that the immigrants’ ages or health conditions put them in additional danger from the virus.

“Unless this Court intervenes to order the release of the Plaintiffs, they, along with many other detained individuals, will face dramatically increased chances of contracting COVID-19, becoming seriously ill, and dying,” said the lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union’s California branches, the San Francisco Public Defender’s office, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco and Oakland immigration law firm Lakin & Wille.

The suit says releasing the most at-risk detainees would also ease crowding at the centers and reduce the danger to other prisoners. Lawyers handling the case have asked for a temporary restraining order, but there was no immediate word on a hearing.

ICE said on its website Tuesday evening that in addition to the COVID-19 case in New Jersey, an ICE detention worker in Elizabeth, N.J., has also tested positive. There are also 18 confirmed cases among ICE nondetention personnel, the agency said.

Meanwhile, a report published Tuesday by The Nation magazine said that as of March 19, nine ICE detainees were in medical-related isolation and 24 more were being monitored for medical issues. It was not immediately clear whether all were suspected of being infected with coronavirus or whether there were other medical issues. The figures obtained by the Nation show 1,444 Homeland Security employees in self-quarantine as of five days ago, including 670 Transportation Security Administration workers and 120 ICE personnel.

An ICE spokeswoman said she was unable to provide numbers other than for confirmed cases.

Courts handling legal cases involving immigration detainees have reached different conclusions about whether such prisoners should remain in custody as the pandemic develops.

Last week, a federal judge in Seattle rejected a suit seeking the release of nine immigrants held at a center in Tacoma, Wash.

“There is no evidence of an outbreak at the detention center or that Defendants’ precautionary measures are inadequate to contain such an outbreak or properly provide medical care should it occur,” wrote District Judge James Robart.

However, Robart added a footnote saying he might reconsider if the outbreak worsened. “The court is mindful of the gravity and rapidly changing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic. The court emphasizes that this order is based on and extends no further than the narrow set of facts, arguments, and requested relief presently before the court,” the judge wrote.

And on Monday, a panel from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cited the increasing threat of the virus when ordering the release of a Mexican woman, Lucero Xochihua-Jaimes, pursuing an asylum claim in the U.S.

“In light of the rapidly escalating public health crisis, which public health authorities predict will especially impact immigration detention centers, the court sua sponte orders that Petitioner be immediately released from detention and that removal of Petitioner be stayed pending final disposition by this court,” said the order, issued by Judges Eugene Siler, Kim Wardlaw and Milan Smith.