Activists fear many more ICE detainees are infected with the coronavirus than limited testing shows

For weeks, immigration activists argued that the trickle of COVID-19 cases in ICE detention centers was not proof of the success of the agency’s safety precautions — not without knowing how many migrants had been tested.

Last week, they got their answer: Tests had been administered to only about 400 of roughly 32,000 immigrants held in jails and prisons across the country.

At that moment on Friday, 124 detainees had tested positive, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement figures. That means almost one-third of those tested were infected.

The numbers “make clear that ICE has chosen to prioritize its deterrence agenda over the safety of literally everyone,” said Philadelphia immigration lawyer Juliette Gomez, whose clients include migrants held in Pennsylvania. “Not only are detainees unsafe, but so is every person who steps inside these facilities, and everyone who comes into contact with those individuals.”

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ICE officials say they follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines in assessing and treating migrants who could be infected, and screen those newly brought to detention centers to see if they might have been exposed.

The total number of confirmed detention-center cases spiked on Tuesday, reaching 220. The new figure includes 11 cases at the Pike County Correctional Facility in northeast Pennsylvania, which had seven last week, according ICE.

It was not immediately clear if the 96 additional cases since Friday had come from new testing, or from new results among the original 400 tests. ICE officials said Tuesday afternoon that they would try to find out.

The extent of testing continues to be a major concern for detained migrants — most of whom have no criminal convictions — and for families that fear their loved ones could grow sick and die inside.

In Pennsylvania, undocumented migrants awaiting hearings or deportation are confined in Clinton County, Pike County, York County, and Berks County, the last being one of the nation’s three centers for families. Five families are currently held at Berks, immigration lawyers say. Their children include a 5-year-old, two 3-year-olds, and two 1-year-olds.

At least two lawsuits seeking to close Berks are in the courts.

Acting ICE Director Matthew Albence provided the number of those tested during an April 17 appearance before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform to discuss how the Department of Homeland Security was handling coronavirus risks in migrant-detention facilities.

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Albence said that ICE has a limited number of test kits and that “we would certainly do more testing” if more were available, according to the committee. He confirmed that ICE does not routinely test detainees before deporting them.

The agency has released about 700 medically vulnerable detainees during the pandemic, he said, and no further releases are planned.

Activists have called for the broad release of detainees, both to increase their personal safety and to enable some measure of social distancing in the limited space of detention centers.

Albence asserted that freeing nonviolent immigrants to protect them from infection could create the impression that the Trump administration is “not enforcing our immigration laws,” which would be a “huge pull factor” and create a “rush at the borders.”