It’s Time to Free Them All
“I can’t eat and sleep properly. I cry with tears most of the day. I am very anxious thinking about what will happen to my husband and myself.”
This is how Prachi* describes her day-to-day life ever since COVID-19 reached the DC, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) area. Prachi’s move to DC started as an exciting new chapter in her life, but soon our broken immigration system turned it into a traumatizing nightmare.
Last year, Prachi’s husband was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and sent to ICA-Farmville — a private detention facility in Virginia operated by Immigration Centers of America (ICA), a for-profit prison company. Having lost their household’s primary-income earner, Prachi was evicted from her home. She took up a job in the service industry to pay her bills and hire a lawyer for her husband, but her efforts came to a halt after she couldn’t work due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Prachi was left wondering if she and her husband — trapped at ICA-Farmville — would survive.
Prachi’s story is unfortunately too common and highlights a broader apathy towards the often-forgotten people detained in the area’s six immigration detention centers. Detained migrants cannot socially distance to protect themselves and therefore are at greater risk of exposure to COVID-19, especially those who are elderly and immunocompromised.
Claudio* is one of these forgotten community members who, like Prachi’s husband, is being detained at ICA-Farmville. His wife Beatriz* is an emergency room nurse at a hospital in Washington, DC working on the frontlines of the pandemic. As a medical professional, Beatriz is at higher risk of being infected by the virus and therefore is isolating herself from her loved ones. Her husband was the only exception, until he was taken away by ICE last month.
“When I come home from the hospital, and he knows I’ve had a rough day dealing with this crisis, he is my shoulder to cry on. Now he’s gone.”
In the past month, two people at ICA-Farmville and three people at Caroline detention center have tested positive for COVID-19 respectively. However, this number is likely to be lower than the actuality because of the severe lack of testing. As of May 12th, ICE has confirmed 869 cases of COVID-19 among the people they detain. Yet, they have only tested 1,686 out of the nearly 30,000 people in their custody, or roughly five percent of the people they detain.
Reports of possible COVID-19 cases at ICA-Farmville began in late March after one dorm was quarantined and six people were put into isolation. With growing fear of exposure, about 100 people detained at ICA-Farmville launched a hunger strike demanding the immediate release of everyone in the facility. The hunger strike ended after strikers faced retaliation, including some being placed in solitary confinement.
After two weeks, the quarantine was lifted, but within days, there were new reports of people with COVID-19 symptoms in a nearby dorm. When the second dorm was quarantined, people detained were told that the quarantine would last two weeks and that no one was allowed to leave during this time. However soon after, ICE disregarded their own quarantine to move Claudio out of the detention center to process his deportation.
By continuing deportations during a pandemic, ICE is actively fueling the spread of the virus. Health officials in Guatemala have reported staggering numbers of positive cases from US deportation flights: 50–75% of people on board deportation flights in March tested positive for COVID-19. This reckless disregard for human life is unacceptable.
In addition to moving people to facilitate their deportation, ICE is also transferring people between detention centers within and across states. Last month approximately 100 people from New York and New Jersey were moved to Caroline detention center in Virginia, and people were transferred between Caroline and ICA-Farmville. Currently, 85 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in detention centers in New York and New Jersey, not including the five ICE employees. Instead of protecting people in detention, ICE is increasing their chance of exposure to COVID-19.
The multiple confirmed cases of COVID-19 coupled with the disturbing reports of deteriorating conditions at ICA-Farmville have spurred elected officials in Virginia to call on ICE to release everyone in detention. Additionally, a lawsuit and temporary restraining order has been filed against ICE, seeking release of detained migrants from detention facilities in Virginia due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ICA-Farmville holds between 500–800 individuals at any given time, and it’s only one of six detention facilities in the area. Governors Northam and Hogan, as chief executives of their respective states, should use their power to shut down all detention centers in the DMV.
Social distancing is impossible in a detention center. The only way for people detained to protect themselves and others is by being released. ICE has 100% discretion to release Prachi’s husband, Claudio, and everyone in immigration detention centers so they can socially distance at home with their families. The longer they wait, the more lives they put at risk.
Releasing everyone in detention is just the first step in the fight against the criminalization of migration. It is time for us to say enough is enough and take it.
It is time to free them all.
*Name changed out of concerns for privacy
