FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: media@freedomforimmigrants.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As the omicron variant rapidly spreads across the world and the United States, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is poised to continue to recklessly endanger the lives of the people in its custody. ICE currently detains nearly 22,000 people in its network of abusive immigrant detention centers—a 54 percent increase in detention population since the beginning of the Biden administration.

In recent weeks, immigrants detained around the country have continued to call the Freedom for Immigrants’ (FFI) National Immigration Detention Hotline to report unsanitary and uninhabitable living conditions and denial of adequate PPE. Critically, hotline callers also report that ICE has failed to provide access to vaccine booster doses. COVID-19 reports made to the hotline are tracked in real time on FFI’s detention map.

The following statement is from Layla Razavi, interim co-executive director of Freedom for Immigrants.

“The virus has changed, but the advice of doctors, epidemiologists and public health officials has not. Thousands of medical experts have repeatedly warned that social distancing is impossible for people in crowded detention conditions, a reality made even more dire by the highly transmissible nature of the omicron variant. The safest place for all of us, including those in detention, is to be with family and loved ones at home where people can access testing, medical care and community support.

“Since the start of the pandemic, ICE has utterly failed to implement even the most basic COVID-19 safety protocols, let alone adhere to the CDC’s guidance or the multitude of court-ordered release and prevention measures. As a result, ICE bears responsibility for the preventable and senseless loss of at least nine lives, 31,599 COVID-19 cases and an incalculable toll on the public health of communities surrounding immigration detention centers across the country.

“Since day one of the pandemic, our communities have paid the price for this agency’s callous indifference toward the health and safety of Black and Brown immigrants. And since President Biden took office, the number of people inside detention has multiplied, placing more immigrants inside at an even greater risk. Enough is enough. We call on President Biden to act swiftly and conduct releases before more people perish.”

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