https://apple.news/AuCl6K46oTsicLY15k0EYgw
White House Reporter
Politico
Josh Gerstein reports for Politico:
A new lawsuit argues that immigrant families being held under the Trump administration’s family detention policy should be released immediately because they are at grave risk of contracting the coronavirus due to conditions in those facilities.
Lawyers filed suit in federal court in Washington on Saturday on behalf of more than three dozen families held at a trio of detention centers in Texas and Pennsylvania.
Advocates say the communal housing arrangements, limited cleaning supplies and the regular influx of new families make the centers a potential hotbed for Covid-19 infection and defy guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control discouraging any gathering of more than 10 people.
“Detained mothers, fathers and children are forced to live and sleep in close quarters and required to congregate and as a result, cannot achieve the ‘social distancing’ needed to effectively prevent the spread of COVID-19,” according to the suit, filed by immigration lawyers in New York, Pennsylvania and Texas. “Even in their beds they cannot even sleep or receive the required distance necessary to protect themselves.”
The suit says cleaning in the so-called Family Residential Centers is inconsistent because it is typically done by detainees who are paid $1 a day for that work. Hand sanitizer and masks are not typically available to the immigrants, and gloves are provided only for certain purposes, the complaint alleges.
“It is almost certain to expect COVID-19 to infect and spread rapidly in family residential centers, especially when people cannot engage in proper hygiene or isolate themselves from infected or asymptomatic residents or staff,” the suit contends.
. . . .
However, immigration lawyers also objected on Sunday after ICE said attorneys wishing to consult immigration detainees in person would now be required to “wear disposable vinyl gloves, N-95 or surgical masks, and eye protection.” Beginning Monday, attorneys need to “provide” those items themselves, new ICE guidelines say, despite the fact they are in short supply.
“.@ICEgov requiring attorneys to supply their own personal protective equipment to serve detained clients, when medical providers say THEY don’t have enough, is appalling and #unconstitutional,” immigration lawyer Allen Orr Jr. wrote on Twitter.
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Read Josh’s full article at the link.
This is like a continuing performance of the “Theater of the Absurd.” Except, real lives and the health of our nation are at stake here. Shut down the unconstitutional, inhuman, and dangerous to our national health DHS Gulag now!
Due Process Forever! The New American Gulag Never!
IDEA: Dems should insist that closing the Gulag for all but the very few demonstrably dangerous individuals (who should be detained by the Bureau of Prisions, not DHS or a private contractor) be part of the multi-trillion dollar stimulus package! The money and personnel could be “repurposed” to FEMA.
PWS
03-23-20