A migrant processing center in Tacoma, Washington, has had an outbreak of COVID-19 with reports of many people having been infected by the virus. Since the first beginning of June, the COVID outbreak at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Processing Center, at least 150 have been infected, including seven guards and a federal health care worker.
Aaron Korthuis, the lawyer for Northwest Immigration Rights Project, also claimed that the agency has released nearly 600 migrants that were determined to be at high risk for carrying COVID-19 out of the facility.
In efforts to deal with the overcrowding at migrant facilities caused by the pandemic, ICE has been diffusing migrants throughout the agency’s processing infrastructure. A document submitted in federal court by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Western Washington claimed the agency has decided to transfer nearly 1,000 migrants to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma.
Almost all of the individuals who contracted the virus tested positive soon after arriving at the Northwest ICE Processing Center. When this development came to light, immigrant rights groups, such as the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, began making allegations that the government is not taking enough precautions in preventing the virus.
In a federal class-action lawsuit on behalf of the migrant detainees, the American Civil Liberties Union has now sued the Biden administration over ICE’s policies in regard to COVID-19 policies. The group is arguing that the Northwest ICE Processing Center is not in compliance with CDC guidelines.
Government legal documents claim that while protocols, “may not follow the ideal scenario,” it is trying to meet federal public health guidance, which would mean “testing and a 14-day quarantine would occur at the originating facility before transfer and again at the destination facility at intake; at a minimum, it should occur at one facility or the other.”
The documents also state that ICE does not routinely test migrants for the COVID-19 virus if they are not displaying symptoms but administer a verbal screening. Only if the individual reports having come into contact with someone who tested positive for the virus will a physical test be performed.
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