It was only a matter of time — a health worker at an immigrant detention center in New Jersey has tested positive for the novel coronavirus after falling ill. So far, officials say, they have seen no evidence that it has spread, but we know how that story is going to play out.
On any given day the federal government has more than 50,000 people in detention as they await deportation hearings. Conditions in some cases are deplorable, and the notion that they might be able to stay a safe distance away from each other and their jailers is laughable.
Yet the government insists on keeping them locked up, even people who have been convicted of no crimes and are merely suspected of being in the country illegally — a civil infraction in most cases. And we’re forcing them to live in conditions that risk their lives.
As The Times’ editorial board noted Wednesday, our jails and prisons are dangerous places during a pandemic, where inmates are “virtually defenseless” against the virus. “In jails especially — where quarters are cramped, inmate turnover is high, and thousands of people are admitted each day — it is only a matter of time before an infected person who does not yet show symptoms enters one of these locked institutions. And once the virus enters such a confined space, it will spread.”
Immigration detention centers are no different. In fact, in many cases they are one and the same, since Immigration and Customs Enforcement contracts with local jails and private prisons for space to hold their detainees. And after a bit of confusion, acting Homeland Security director Ken Cuccinelli tweeted Thursday that immigration agents will continue arresting people living here without permission, adding even more bodies to the detention system as immigration courts themselves remain, remarkably, open.
(3/5) This means that @ICEgov will continue to prioritize arresting and removing criminal aliens and other aliens who pose a threat to public safety, just as it always has during President @realDonaldTrump‘s administration.
— Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli (@HomelandKen) March 19, 2020
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, inspections of many detention centers found them to be over-crowded, unhealthy and, at times, dangerous. Last June the Homeland Security inspector general reported that spot checks of five border detention facilities found children lacking spare clothing, while other migrants were provided with only wet wipes to clean themselves and were given food that caused gastrointestinal conditions.
In some facilities, some single adults were jammed into cells so crowded many could not sit down.
Remember, there is little reason to detain most of these people in the first place. Being in the U.S. without permission generally is not a criminal act; it is, in most cases, a civil violation. And in most cases, people facing deportation could be monitored by other means while they fight extradition. Immigration detention should be reserved only for those who pose a threat to public safety or who the government has reasonable cause to believe would not show up for deportation hearings.
At the least, the government should not exacerbate the pandemic by needlessly forcing so many people to remain in detention facilities where they cannot maintain safe distances from other people.
