Cases of COVID-19 are surging in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities, as detainee populations have soared over the past few months.
An analysis by The New York Times found that more than 7,500 cases have been detected since April. That represents more than 40 percent of all coronavirus cases in ICE detention since the start of the pandemic last year.
The rise in infections coincides with a surge in immigrant detention, from 14,000 detainees in April to more than 26,000 at the end of June, according to the Times analysis.
While President Biden has aggressively scaled back interior immigrant detentions, ICE facilities are being used to house detainees apprehended by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at borders and points of entry.
According to an analysis by TRAC, a Syracuse University project that tracks immigration statistics, 82 percent of the detainees in June were apprehended by CBP, not ICE.
While the number of detainees apprehended by CBP plummeted during the heights of the pandemic and rose again as more migrants were apprehended at the border, the number of people detained and held by ICE has slowly tapered off over the past two years and has plateaued at about 4,500 since May.
ICE officials say the increase in infections is directly correlated to the increase in CBP detainees in their care, all of whom are subjected to testing, quarantine and cohorting once in the detention centers.
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Still, the rise in detainee infections also points to violations in ICE’s detainee protocols, according to the New York Times report.
All incoming detainees are tested for coronavirus and subjected to a 14-day quarantine, procedures that in theory would prevent spread within detention centers.
ICE officials say the bulk of infections comes from CBP intakes, and that in-detention transmissions are rare.
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ICE facilities plagued by COVID-19 surges https://t.co/a1kyqht5P4 pic.twitter.com/6iyQRVTbbs
— The Hill (@thehill) July 6, 2021
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