Advocates seek court order re: COVID at Tacoma immigration detention facility
Advocates have filed for an court order seeking the release of people in detention and other measures in response to COVID-19 cases at the immigration detention facility in Tacoma.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project sought the temporary restraining order late Friday in U.S. District Court. The motion was part of a lawsuit they filed earlier this year, seeking the release of people from the facility who are most at risk from the coronavirus.
“The legal organizations seek the immediate release of people who are at high risk for serious illness or death in the event of COVID-19 infection, as well as court-ordered limits on facility population and regular, universal COVID-19 testing,” their press release said Friday. “Since June, there have been 31 cases of COVID at NWDC, including four officers from for-profit provider GEO Group, and four ICE Health Service Corps employees.”
More than a third of the cases were reported since November, and this week ICE reported the first case in the general population units, the advocates said.
As of Friday the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement website said the facility had had 21 total confirmed cases among detainees.
“These latest positive tests make clear that the government cannot ensure the reasonable safety of our clients who are locked up at NWDC,” Matt Adams, Legal Director for NWIRP, said in a statement. “Immediate action should be taken to protect those who are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. We have seen the virus rage throughout other ICE facilities and know that spread within ICE facilities also exacerbates spread in surrounding communities.”
Eunice Cho, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s National Prison Project, said in a statement: “In lawsuits around the country, the ACLU has observed time and time again that ICE is willing to lie, recklessly transfer detained people, refuse to issue tests to keep positivity rates low, and otherwise obfuscate the situation.”
An ICE spokesperson said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.
The GEO Group, which privately owns and operates the facility, now known as the Northwest ICE Processing Center, said in a recent statement in another matter: “While the COVID-19 pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges, from the very beginning we have taken extensive measures to ensure the health and safety of those in our care and our employees, who are on the front lines making daily sacrifices at the Center.”
