Carrie Kaufman and Akiko Cooks talked to UNLV Immigration Clinic attorney Paloma Guerrero about conditions in ICE detention centers in Nevada, and whether social distancing is even possible.
The Washington Post reported today that the Dept. of Homeland Security’s emergency stockpiles of protective gear are dangerously low. This includes gloves, face masks and other medical supplies.
“The stockpile was designed to respond to a handful of cities,” a source told the Post. “It was never built or designed to fight a 50-state pandemic.”
The Guardian reported yesterday that the day after California’s Shelter in Place order, ICE agents raided immigrant communities, putting dozens of people in detention.
But get this… the ICE agents were wearing N95 masks. You know, those masks that medical professionals are desperate to get.
Yesterday the ACLU of Nevada filed a lawsuit over detentions of two immigrants who have pre-existing conditions that make them more vulnerable to the virus. This follows a handful of lawsuits around the country in which the ACLU has prevailed.
Federal Judges in the U.S. have held that keeping people in detention demonstrates "deliberate indifference"; is "life threatening" and that social distancing is impossible in overcrowded detention centers; that filling detention centers represents "callous disregard" for detainees.