Civil Rights Organizations Seek Emergency Court Ruling for Immediate COVID-19 Protections for People in Immigration Detention Centers
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Early this morning, a group of civil rights legal organizations and their pro bono law firm partners filed an emergency application for a preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California seeking a court order requiring that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) take immediate steps to protect people in immigration detention facilities from COVID-19, particularly those at heightened risk. The motion immediately follows ICE’s own admission of the first confirmed positive case of COVID-19 of a person in ICE detention.
The motion argues that if ICE cannot or will not immediately take steps to ensure that medically vulnerable people are protected from COVID-19 – including providing timely access to qualified and necessary healthcare – then the Court should order ICE to release those individuals in the interest of public health.
The preliminary injunction is being requested as part of an existing class action lawsuit, Fraihat v. ICE, on behalf of the nearly 40,000 people held in ICE detention facilities throughout ICE’s detention system. Based on first-hand observations from attorneys serving clients inside detention centers and direct reports from people who are detained, the current conditions are medically dangerous and fail to meet standard public health recommendations for addressing the pandemic.
According to the court filing, ICE has not provided even the most basic public health protections inside detention centers. Its failure to take preventative measures – like reducing crowding to implement social distancing or providing soap and hand sanitizer – places individuals with underlying conditions including heart conditions, diabetes, and other serious health conditions in imminent danger of infection and death. Current ICE protocols do not even consider trying to identify high-risk individuals, much less take the significant steps necessary to reduce the risk of contagion, illness, serious complications, and death.
The threat of COVID-19 compounds the existing inhumane conditions in detention centers already highlighted in the lawsuit. In several instances, detention centers have not provided any information about COVID-19 to detained people, meaning they do not know the symptoms or how to even try to protect themselves from infection.
If the preliminary injunction is granted, ICE would be required to immediately assess medically vulnerable people for COVID-19 risk factors and either immediately implement medically necessary precautions consistent with standards of care, or release them. Additionally, ICE would immediately be required to provide basic protections such as providing ample soap and hand sanitizer, protocols for transporting people to the hospital, and appropriately testing and treating anyone with COVID-19 symptoms.
The motion seeks the release of those in detention if ICE cannot take medically necessary precautions.
Statements outlining observations from immigration detention facilities across the country are available HERE and the motion can be viewed HERE.
The organizations filing for the preliminary injunction and litigating Fraihat v. ICE are Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center, Disability Rights Advocates, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Law firms Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP are serving as pro bono co-counsel. Attorneys from these organizations are available for interviews.
To schedule an interview, please contact:
Julie Yates, Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center: jyates@creeclaw.org, 303-945-3204
Charles Kretchmer Lutvak, Disability Rights Advocates: charles@risaheller.com, 917-748-3096
Jeff Migliozzi, Southern Poverty Law Center: jeff.migliozzi@splcenter.org, 334-303-1261
Michelle Samuels, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP: msamuels@willkie.com, 212-728-3574
Howard Mintz, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP: hmintz@orrick.com, 650-614-7314
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Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center (CREEC) is a nonprofit membership organization whose goal is to ensure that everyone can fully and independently participate in our nation’s civic life without discrimination based on race, gender, disability, religion, national origin, age, sexual orientation, or gender identity. https://creeclaw.org/.
Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), founded in 1993, is the leading national nonprofit disability rights legal center. Its mission is to advance equal rights and opportunity for people with all types of disabilities nationwide. DRA represents people with the full spectrum of disabilities in complex, system-changing, class action cases. Thanks to DRA’s precedent-setting work, people with disabilities across the country have dramatically improved access to health care, employment, transportation, education, disaster preparedness planning, voting, housing, and juvenile justice. https://www.dralegal.org.
Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond, working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of all people. Through its Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative, SPLC provides direct representation to immigrants in remote, rural detention centers in two of the states with the highest numbers of detained individuals, Louisiana and Georgia. https://www.splcenter.org/.
