Vulnerable immigrant detainees should be released in response to pandemic, lawsuit says
Two nonprofits sued Monday to seek the release of vulnerable immigration detainees from the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and the American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in U.S. District Court.
“The legal organizations seek the release of people who are in civil detention and are at high risk for serious illness or death in the event of COVID-19 infection,” the nonprofits said in a press release. “The determination is based on the age of detainees, as well as their underlying medical conditions, which public health experts have indicated will increase the risk of serious COVID-19 infection.”
The lawsuit argues that the court has the authority to order the release of detainees. Nine detainees are named in the suit, but plaintiffs attorneys argued the relief could apply to more.
An ICE spokeswoman said Monday that the agency does not comment on pending litigation. The agency does have a website with information about its response to the pandemic: www.ice.gov/covid19.
NWIRP legal director Matt Adams said in the press release that ICE “should immediately release our clients who have already been identified by the federal government as being most at risk because of this epidemic. If it waits to react to worst case scenarios once they take hold, it will already be too late.”
ACLU attorney Eunice Cho said in the statement: “Public health experts have warned that failing to reduce the number of people detained — and in particular, failing to release those particularly vulnerable to the disease — endangers the lives of everyone in the detention facility, including staff, and the broader community.”
The Northwest Detention Center is located on the Tacoma Tideflats. The facility has 1,575 beds. It is owned and operated by the GEO Group.
This story was originally published March 16, 2020 at 2:27 PM.
