Former ICE Director: Release Immigrants from Detention or COVID-19 Will Spread Like Wildfire Inside

Alarm is growing about the safety of more than 37,000 people held in immigrant detention centers and private jails that contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, where it is nearly impossible for them to avoid close contact to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Nearly half of those detained by ICE are accused of no crime other than civil immigration violations. Immigrants at three jails in New Jersey are now on hunger strikes over unsanitary conditions that put them at high risk during the pandemic. We hear from a detained person on hunger strike and speak with John Sandweg, former acting director of ICE during the Obama administration, who is calling for ICE to release thousands from detention, and Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, or CHIRLA, which just led a national effort to stop immigration enforcement actions.

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[Sentryalex]

Release them in Mexico. There no coronavirus there. They'll be much safer there. Also who is gonna pay their medical bills if they still on US soil?

[reinerwilhelms-tricarico]

One big obstacle seems to be that a lot of this detention business is run by private companies. If they’re shut down, these will go out of business. Good ridden.

[alexnorth]

I wish the average American sitizens have the same protection as illegal felons in ICE custody.

[ezioc.]

Have THEIR GOVERNMENTS come an GET them!

[vickyallen]

You have got to be kidding me?
What the h*** is wrong with this country

[darrinatorrr]

They can self deport at anytime to leave the facility

[mikemcgarrity]

Detained Immigrants should be offered a free ride Home to their Country of Origin. Turning these People out on the Streets in the Middle of a Pandemic is a Cruel Idea. Where will these people find: Food, Shelter, or Medical Care? It is Absurd and Cruel to throw these People out on the Streets in the middle of a Pandemic.

[kRis-rnso]

I am accepting the fact that immigrants will not be high on the list of ‘people to help’. If there comes a time when lives are chosen, this is it. Fair? Coronavirus is never fair.

[kimsylvia]

Wow ICE is doing a great job keeping everyone safe!

[zebabustani]

The question regarding detained immigrant children who were separated from their parents was not answered by the guest!, and Amy did not push for an answer!

[francosworld]

Should have Stayed in your own Country - Not USA Problem! Period!

[zzhoundzz]

Abolish Ice and privately owned prison complexes. Free the children and reunite with their families !!

[johaquila]

At the current rate of spread in the US (multiplication by 10 every week), within less than a month a situation much worse than the one in northern Italy will have been reached, with most of those who aren't currently sick from the virus (or dead) being immune because they've already had it. Since (unlike in Italy) the US healthcare system isn't big enough to deal with the entire population even in normal times, and since a lot of healthcare workers will be sick or dead at that point, this can easily lead to 5% of the population dying due to the virus combined with lack of medical care.
This can only be prevented by quickly taking a number of extremely tough and difficult measures to stop the spreading. Releasing most prisoners was one of the more easy ones. Not releasing ICE detainees is stupid beyond words.
Here in Germany, the spread started much earlier because we are relatively close to Italy, but it is much slower due to the measures that have been taken and because we are relatively well supplied with tests. (Germany is actually testing more per capita than South Korea did to get the virus under control. I think our problem is that it took a bit longer to get to this point and the other measures aren't as strong.) Our healthcare system has about the same capacity as that in Italy. Our government currently *hopes* that by doubling respirators and by activating medical students and reactivating former medical personnel, we will just barely have the capacity required to deal with the number of patients at the peak. Whether this works depends on whether current efforts to slow the spread are sufficient. And that's in Germany, where the conditions are better than in Italy. In the UK they are significantly worse, and in the US they are way worse even than in the UK. It's just not visible yet. That's the problem with exponential growth. For weeks you don't know anyone with the disease, and then suddenly you wonder if you know anyone who doesn't have it.
In other words: When the really stupid people also begin to understand it's serious, it's already way too late to do anything.

[lorenhamstra]

Since ice is a federal agency what authority does any state governor have to release the people being detained there. That being said the former director makes a good arguement for releasing the people that are not criminals.

[Smokey_Crow]

HERE COME THE PRISON BAIL OUTS. MARK ME NOW, QUOTE ME LATER. PRISON INDUSTRY WILL DEMAND BAIL OUTS.

[edward]

Why aren't they concentrating their efforts on the most dangerous people to begin with???.?

[cheshire-yunz]

Yes let's all worry about the illegal aliens in the midst of this crises let's make them our first priority.

[jlfoodforest]

Not everyone in immigration detention centers should be released, Angelica Salas is crazy to expect that! A lot of undocumented people committed crimes here and it took a lot of work from ICE to find them and arrest them, and now you want to let them go? HELL NO!

[kryptonarie]

This is sad, and humanity deserves what it gets for the misery it's caused throughout history and the misery it's causing today to it's own!

[carlosamonimus]

They would relief people's when is too late and they are infected and that would be dangerous