🧵 #Thread: 3 mo. ago we launched a #COVID19 Hotline to document abuses in ICE prisons. Since then, we received nearly 10k calls.
We just published our latest report analyzing data from the Hotline & media reports. Here’s what we found 👇 #FreeThemAll freedomforimmigrants.org/covid19
Since our last update, ICE officials announced two additional deaths in custody.
Onoval Perez-Montufa
Luis Sanchez-Perez
Rest in Power
#FreeThemAll
ICE continued to transfer people between its facilities, including to & from facilities with large known concentrations of #COVID19.
By ICE’s own admission, it has transferred people with positive cases of #COVID19.
This is a reckless process that must end.
Over the course of a month we documented 19 incidents of transfers between facilities with high concentrations of reported active #COVID19 cases and facilities with no
active cases of #COVID19
Transfers have been directly linked to new cases of #COVID19 in immigrant prisons.
In several instances, ICE continued to undermine judicial orders to reduce detention levels, choosing to transfer people out of facilities subject to court orders to reduce detention levels rather than release them to community & loved ones.
#FreeThemAll
We also documented an increase in the rate of transfers from state & federal prisons with known cases of #COVID19 to ICE prisons.
At #Adelanto, 6 of the 10 people who have tested positive for #COVID19 were transferred from state or federal prisons. #FreeThemAll
FFI documented a growing concern among advocates & loved ones of people going missing for long periods of time in ICE custody.
From May 6 - June 14, we identified 7 instances in which people held in ICE detention could not be located via the ICE Locator for over 5 days.
From June 25-July 7, we identified 6 instances in which individuals information pulled up the message, “Zero records found,” often for an entire week, before having their location in a detention facility show up again in the ICE Locator.
ICE is disappearing people.
#FreeThemAll
We continued to document a failure to observe public health protocols on the part of ICE officials & third party contractors.
On July 15 a Hotline caller detained at El Valle in TX reported that detained people are only given one mask and have to wash it & reuse it
#FreeThemAll
After we filed our initial complaint with @IC4IJ about the use of toxic chemical disinfectants at #Adelanto, we have identified 6 possible additional facilities including at Bluebonnet & El Valle in TX.
#FreeThemAll
On July 3, a person detained #Adelanto reported that he recently lost consciousness in the shower as a result of chemical disinfectants sprayed in the bathroom.
The person said they were briefly hospitalized as a result and then placed in quarantine for 22 days upon returning.
FFI continued to document widespread medical neglect, including failure to adequately treat people who had tested positive for #COVID19.
As well as deferral of essential medical services unrelated to #COVID19
On July 2, the sibling of someone detained at Wakulla Co Jail reported that someone detained w/their family member tested positive for #COVID19 & that they were displaying symptoms.
However, he was denied his medical records & was only given asthma medication as treatment
On June 29, a person detained at the IAH Secure Adult Detention Facility reported that they were referred to external medical providers for necessary surgery but then sent back to detention after ICE refused to pay for the procedure.
#FreeThemAll
While CEOs of private prison companies appeared before Congress this week and downplayed the level of retaliatory abuse at private ICE prisons, we continued to document widespread use of force, including pepper spray, rubber bullets, and tear gas.
#ICELies
#FreeThemAll
On July 8, a person detained at #Adelanto reported that after being hit with rubber bullets weeks earlier, he suffered from a heart attack, was hospitalized for a period of 5 days, and continues to experience difficulty breathing and residual chest pain.
#ICELies
#FreeThemAll
FFI also documented instances of facility staff suppressing information of #COVID19.
On July 3 and 4, GEO guards at Adelanto came into dormitory areas and removed newspapers containing news about conditions at the facility.
#FreeThemAll
And all of this is just what has been reported to us or in the media.
The #COVID19 pandemic is exacerbating what we already know to be true:
ICE cannot keep people safe.
Detention can be a death sentence.
#FreeThemAll
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