Today the DHS Office of Inspector published its first “report” on #COVID19 in ICE prisons. Since we are an org that has been tracking #COVIDBehindBars since March, you can imagine we were interested.
This “report” is a sham.
Let’s break down exactly why.
🧵#Thread
For starters, only ICE employees -- not people in detention, not private prison staff -- were surveyed.
This is important because 70% of people in ICE custody are detained in prisons operated by corporations like GEO Group & CoreCivic.
#FreeThemAll
People in ICE custody are best equipped to talk about the conditions in detention because they live it day in, day out. Excluding them from the first #COVID19 OIG report was a deliberate choice.
This system thrives off secrecy.
#FreeThemAll
Here is ICE openly admitting what advocates and people in detention have been saying months: Social distancing is impossible in jails & prisons.
So why are we still keeping people behind bars? #FreeThemAll
According to their survey, the vast majority of ICE prisons across the country were well-prepared for the #COVID19 pandemic with enough soap, masks, and other PPE.
That may be true for staff, but it’s not what but it's not what callers to our #Hotline are telling us:
From a Jun 15 #Hotline call from El Paso:
“The entire detention center is now in quarantine. There are many sick guards. Only recently did any of them start wearing masks. It is chaos inside here. We have a lot of fear about dying inside.”
#FreeThemAll
From a May 7 #Hotline call from Otay Mesa:
"3 months ago, when we started asking for PPE they didn't give us anything, no masks, no soap. It took 25 days after the 1st case in our facility for them to give us masks & a small bar of soap each. By then we were all sick."
From a May 26 #Hotline call from Pine Prairie:
“I am suffering from PTSD and have severe and sharp chest pain. All I get is ibuprofen. We have to beg to make phone calls...We have to pay for soap and sanitary stuff”
#FreeThemAll
Since DHS OIG failed to survey actual people in detention for their survey, it is important that their words get read #FreeThemAll
You can follow our real-time #COVID19 tracking here: freedomforimmigrants.org/map
And the icing on the cake? DHS OIG makes *no recommendations* for ICE.
Well we have one: #FREETHEMALL
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