A Federal Judge, this week, Rejected a Dangerous Request from Federal Immigration Officials to loosen Novel Coronavirus Restrictions at a Privately Run Immigration Prison in California, Condemning Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Private Prison Profiteer, GEO Group, “not only for their dangerous inactions, but also for issuing numerous false statements,” Plaintiffs said.
“From the start of the public health crisis until now, the conduct of the key ICE and GEO officials in charge of operations at Mesa Verde has been appalling,” Judge, Vince Chhabria slammed. “These officials knew that they needed a clear and detailed plan to minimize the risk of an outbreak (and to contain an outbreak if one occurred), but nine months later they still have not created one.” This Detention Camp has in fact pushed Policies actively Endangering People Locked inside in the Middle of a Pandemic.
Internal Emails obtained through the Lawsuit, earlier this year, showed ICE and GEO Group Rejected a Plan to Test all Detained People at the Facility “because they would be unable to adequately isolate those who tested positive,” Groups said this past August. Those Documents, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area (LCCRSF), Attorney Bree Bernwanger, said at the time, showed “a staggering disregard for human life on the part of ICE and GEO.”
Chhabria echoed Bernwanger’s Words in his Decision this week, saying that Officials showed a “deliberate indifference to the safety of the detainees,” and a “conscious avoidance of widespread testing for fear that positive tests would require them to take measures to protect the safety of detainees that they preferred not to take.”
Plaintiffs including LCCRSF, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundations of Northern and Southern California, the San Francisco Office of the Public Defender, and Law Firms Lakin & Wille LLP and Cooley LLP, said that in addition to rejecting officials’ Demand to Loosen the Ruling he made this Past Summer Ordering Regular Testing and other Requirements, Chhabria “added new restrictions requested by the detainees’ representatives, including that two dorms be reserved for people who test positive, protective intake procedures, and that the detainee population for each dorm be capped at 26.”
But Plaintiffs also Cautioned that “[e]ven with this win in court, the people detained within the walls of Mesa Verde remain gravely concerned about their well being.”
Detainees and Advocates have repeatedly said that trying to Practice Safety Guidelines like Social Distancing inside Prison Camps is just about impossible. Some Detained People have said Officials haven’t even bothered to Inform them of the Bare Minimum on how to stay Safe, instead finding out that Information by Watching Television. “I learned about ‘social distancing’ from watching the news in the detention center,” One man at Mesa Verde said earlier this year.
This Pandemic has Contributed to ICE’s Deadliest year since 2005. In September, 21 Immigrants died while in the Custody of the Out-of-Control Agency during the 2020 fiscal year, more than One-Third of them after Testing Positive for COVID-19. The Virus has raged like Wildfire at Immigration Camps all over the Country, with more than 250 Confirmed Cases among Detainees at One Facility in Arizona. ICE could today Release Detained People to Shelter at Home in their Communities. But it Refuses to Release them, Llying to everyone’s faces all the while.
“There is no safe way for ICE to detain people during a pandemic and no justification for doing so,” said San Francisco Public Defender, Manohar Raju. “It is past time for authorities to prioritize human lives and safety—for the benefit of those in custody as well as surrounding communities.”
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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