Covid deaths among immigrant detainees.
Wearing our masks while at the check-out counter buying groceries the other day, a woman in line behind us asked, “Oh, are you still wearing those things?”
She meant our masks.
And yes we are, politely explaining there is still a pandemic.
If shopping or traveling or being in large crowds and being one of the few wearing a mask is annoying, think about this.
According to Kaiser Health News:
Medical care in immigration detention facilities was deficient even before the pandemic. Then, in September, medically vulnerable people in ICE detention facilities lost a source of protection, with the expiration of a court order that had required federal immigration officials to consider releasing detainees with covid risks.
The agency has “completely given up on protecting people in detention from covid,” said Zoe Bowman, supervising attorney at Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso, Texas.
It is true that while there seems to be a winter spike and an increase in hospitalizations in recent months, U.S. Covid deaths are down.
But for the 30,000 people living in close quarters in the country’s network of immigration facilities, covid remains a major threat.
When immigration officials transferred Cipriano Alvarez-Chavez to the Stewart center in August 2020, he was still relying on the mask he had after being released from federal prison in July, according to his daughter, Martha Chavez.
Ten days later, the 63-year-old lymphoma survivor was taken to a hospital in Columbus, 40 miles away, where he tested positive for covid, according to his death report. He died after spending more than a month on a ventilator.
“It was pure neglect,” his daughter said. His death “shattered our world.”
Two years after Alvarez-Chavez’s death, advocacy groups and detainees said ICE has not done enough to protect detainees from covid, a situation consistent with the facilities’ history of poor medical care and lack of hygiene. “It’s disheartening to see that no matter how bad things get, they don’t change,” said Dr. Amy Zeidan, an assistant professor at Emory University School of Medicine, who reviews detainee health records and performs medical evaluations for people seeking asylum.
Kaiser Health News:
“For decades, ICE has proven itself incapable and unwilling to ensure the health and safety of people in its custody,” said Sofia Casini, director of monitoring and community advocacy at Freedom for Immigrants, an advocacy group. “Covid-19 has only worsened this horrifying reality.”