Thread by @MigrantFreedom

🧵 #Thread: 4 mo. ago we launched a #COVID19 Hotline to document abuses in ICE prisons.

Since then, we received over 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 three deaths in custody.

Kuan Hui Lee, James Thomas Hill, Freddy Guillen Vega.

The number of in-custody deaths this year so far is double what ICE reported for all of fiscal year 2020

#DetentionKills #FreeThemAll

Advocates are concerned, however, that the true death toll of #COVID19 in ICE prisons is under-counted due to lack of information regarding the fate of people exposed to #COVID19 in detention and then released.

pbs.org/wgbh/frontline…

This month, we documented one report of a person who was exposed to #COVID19 while detained, released, and then died.

We identified at least one other instance in which ICE released a person from custody after they tested positive for #COVID19 & were hospitalized #FreeThemAll

As of August 13 ICE confirmed 4,531 positive cases of #COVID19 across 90 facilities since the beginning of the #COVID19 pandemic.

This represents an increase of 1,035 positive cases and the addition of 20 new facilities since our last update on July 16.

ICE continues to refuse to report how many of its contract staff have tested positive for #COVID19.

Considering over 70% of people in ICE custody are detained in prisons operated by private prison companies, this represents a huge lack of transparency.

#FreeThemAll

Emails between ICE and its contractors released in recent court filings demonstrate that ICE has gone so far as to direct its staff to halt #COVID19 testing due to concerns that the prison could not keep people safe.

#FreeThemAll
democracynow.org/2020/8/7/headl…

For example, an attorney representing people detained at the Sherburne Co. Jail reported to us that the facility had 20 #COVID19 tests but only administered 5.

A man detained there had been denied a test twice, despite experiencing #COVID19 symptoms.

ICE continues to implement its dangerous practice of cohorting - in which groups of people who are suspected or confirmed of having been exposed to #COVID19 are grouped together for a period of isolation and observation.

On Aug 4, a person detained at the South Texas Detention Complex reported that staff began housing people from two different dorms together. The person said that, after the cohorting was implemented, 3 people developed #COVID19 symptoms and had to be hospitalized.

#FreeThemAll

In many instances, people in detention report that the way individual “quarantines” are implemented in ICE prisons amounts to solitary confinement.

As we’ve previously reported, the isolating nature of detention already functions as a form of torture.
freedomforimmigrants.org/report-on-ment…

On July 24, we filed a civil rights complaint on behalf of a man detained at El Valle. After his hand was fractured in CBP custody, he was referred to surgery where he developed an infection. Upon his return to El Valle, he was placed in solitary for 2 weeks w/o any medical care.

ICE continued to transfer people between its facilities, including to & from facilities w/ #COVID19 cases

At Mesa Verde, advocates report the majority of transfers are from California Department of Corrections custody & tend to be older & in very poor health

#FreeThemAll

During this time, we documented 3 instances of ICE transferring people from facilities w/active cases of #COVID19 to facilities w/no active cases

We documented 5 instances of ICE transferring people from facilities w/zero active cases to facilities w/confirmed cases of #COVID19

We documented a growing fear among advocates & loved ones of people going missing for long periods of time in ICE custody.

They have expressed concerns that they are often left to wonder if their loves ones may be acutely ill or dead.

#FreeThemAll

On Aug 4, the locations of 6 individuals in ICE detention at Adelanto showed as “Call Field Office” per the ICE Locator. Their locations were not updated for over a week until, when all six individuals appeared in the ICE Locator as being held in Arizona.

#FreeThemAll

ICE continued to execute deportations, despite clear evidence that deportations have carried #COVID19 to countries in CentAm, the Caribbean, & elsewhere.

In some instances, individuals reported they were deported after being confirmed to have contracted #COVID19

A growing number of people in ICE custody face indefinite detention as their countries are not accepting deportations amid #COVID19.

For example: A man from Cuba reported to us that he is detained 199 days past his deportation order.

#FreeThemAll

We continued to documented reports of unsanitary conditions at ICE facilities & lack of access to necessary services.

On July 31, a person detained at Baker Co. Sheriff's Office in FL reported that they didn't have access to water between noon on July 30 & 10 a.m. on July 31.

The same person said that the guards made jokes about shutting off the water.

They also joked that the cells are infested with bugs and they need to use their sheets as a facemask when sleeping to prevent bugs from crawling into their mouth.

#FreeThemAll

3 mos after we filed a civil rights complaint w/@IC4IJ, people detained at Adelanto continue to report that the toxic chemical #HDQ is still being used.

Yesterday @Earthjustice released a fact sheet demonstrating how dangerous #HDQ is:

People in ICE prisons continued to engage in internal organizing to protest ICE's response to #COVID19.

Immigrants detained in Louisiana protested their indefinite detention and were met with pepper spray.

#FreeThemAll
perilouschronicle.com/2020/08/07/if-…

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.

We must #FreeThemAll to save lives.