U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced Wednesday that it will temporarily stop arresting immigrants across the U.S. who are not deemed a “public safety threat.” The agency said it will focus on the enforcement of “individuals subject to mandatory detention based on criminal grounds.” In a notification sent to Congress, the agency said this decision follows efforts to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus and that it would take “alternatives to detention” during the outbreak. ICE even said it would not carry out enforcement operations at or near healthcare facilities, including hospitals or doctors’ offices.
This move follows a campaign by advocates and lawmakers to halt enforcement operations during the widespread pandemic. Despite safety measures in place throughout the nation and warning to practice social distancing, ICE has continued its enforcement activities, prompting more than 45 organizations to sign “a letter this week calling on the Department of Homeland Security to suspend such actions, The Los Angeles Times reported.
While it is unclear how long they will practice this strategy, ICE claimed this action was taken for the safety of both the public and the agency. "To ensure the welfare and safety of the general public as well as officers and agents in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic response, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will temporarily adjust its enforcement posture beginning today, March 18, 2020," the statement by ICE said. "ICE’s highest priorities are to promote life-saving and public safety activities." There is a current estimate of nearly 38,000 individuals nationwide in ICE’s custody, according to BuzzFeed News.
In the statement, ICE said individuals should not fear seeking medical care because of immigration enforcement. The statement follows reports by advocates that undocumented immigrants are less likely to seek care for COVID-19 due to the fear of it affecting their chances of becoming a legal permanent resident, in addition to the fear of being deported. “The fear that this administration has fueled in immigrant communities is thwarting efforts to protect the public health of everybody,” Tanya Broder, an attorney at the National Immigration Law Center, told The New York Times. Immigrants are less likely to seek health care, not only due to lack of insurance but fear for family and friends who may be undocumented, advocates said.
While ICE claims it is committed to the health and safety of those in its custody, evidence of its lack of medical care in detention centers has been repeatedly reported, including at a now shutdown facility in New Mexico. According to The Washington Post, as of Tuesday, there were no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in ICE detention centers, however, the risk still remains high. Detention centers have inhumane conditions in which immigrants are forced to live in crowded and unhygienic spaces. Advocates have filed lawsuits demanding the release of detainees due to the increased chance of infection, especially during the time of such a pandemic.
While facilities detain a majority of adults, the population also includes vulnerable individuals including children and the elderly. “Between the crowded rooms and the substandard medical care, if the virus were to reach these detention centers, it is sure to spread like wildfire. It is time for ICE to release people in custody and find alternatives to detention that would limit exposure to the virus,” Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Ed Markey wrote in a post published on Medium.
In a lawsuit filed Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Washington and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project sued ICE on behalf of immigrants detained at the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center in Washington, who lawyers said were at high risk of infection, The Post reported. “Immigrant detention centers are institutions that uniquely heighten the danger of disease transmission,” Eunice Cho, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Prison Project, said in a statement. “Public health experts have warned that failing to reduce the number of people detained—and in particular, failing to release those particularly vulnerable to the disease—endangers the lives of everyone in the detention facility, including staff, and the broader community.”
While the move to temporarily stop most arrests in the country is positive news for advocates, it is not enough. ICE needs to release vulnerable individuals in addition to providing adequate and better medical and health care to those in its custody. The spread of the coronavirus only highlights the lack of medical care and inhumane conditions present in ICE facilities. The camps must be closed. As Markey wrote, “the United States has a responsibility to do all that it can to halt the spread of this virus. We must immediately halt needless deportations and release detainees.”