Editorials
Tacoma immigrant detention center could be next viral hot spot. So what’s being done about it?
Here’s what we know about COVID-19: Confined spaces like nursing homes, jails, and cruise ships allow the disease to spread faster than fire in a dry barn.
It’s why when we look at the Northwest ICE Processing Center on the Tacoma Tideflats, we no longer see a controversial immigration detention center operated by the private, for-profit GEO Group in partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
What we see is a ticking time bomb, a potential for a coronavirus catastrophe.
So far, there are no positive cases of COVID-19 at NWIPC, but as of midweek, ICE reported 89 cases in other facilities. Detainees at the Tacoma facility are scared. Wednesday, they expressed it in what little way they could: Caged by barbed wire fences, they spelled out SOS in the outside yard with their bodies.
Fast, proactive measures are the only way to stop the virus, but when this Editorial Board asked what’s being done to prevent widespread infection at the facility, formerly and more commonly known as the Northwest Detention Center, we got buried in jargon.
ICE public affairs officer Tanya Roman told us NWIPC is following federal coronavirus safety guidelines and working on reducing the detention center’s population “to 70 percent or less (of its 1,575 capacity) to increase social distancing.”
But given what we know about the virus’ devastating path, take-our-word-for-it pledges aren’t good enough.
Other Washington lockdown facilities are clear about how they’re thinning their populations; the state plans to release up to 950 nonviolent offenders from prisons, while Western State Hospital recently released 17 psychiatric patients to group or family homes.
The center polices itself during this crisis, which worries Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards. She knows what happens at NWIPC will directly impact our community, first responders and local hospitals. “These people are in our backyard. They are my concern.”
Woodards is referring to the approximately 800 migrants now held in the center. Specific numbers hide under the cloak of “operations security.” Roman said she couldn’t disclose the number of detainees or employees.
When we asked the mayor if anyone from city government has been inside to evaluate safety protocols, Woodards exclaimed, “We’re not allowed. And we have no triggers to pull.”
The mayor says her office frequently inquires about the health of NWIPC staff and detainees, and the Tacoma Fire Department closely monitors calls, but as for a coronavirus readiness plan: “There isn’t one.”
To date, no discussions have happened between the city and NWIPC to ensure screening, quarantining, hospital support and critical supplies.
We’ve seen this “wait and see” approach to COVID-19 before. It’s what the federal government followed in early January when the world learned of the highly contagious virus. We’d hate to see a repeat in Tacoma.
Gov. Jay Inslee sent ICE a letter requesting a detailed picture of NWIPC’s coronavirus response, but an Inslee spokesperson could only confirm what we already knew: In March, ICE suspended social visits at detention facilities, but because legal proceedings still move forward, attorneys come and go.
On March 21, Washington’s congressional delegation also sent a letter requesting detailed information regarding policies and procedures to combat COVID-19. A spokesperson from Rep. Adam Smith’s office told us the response from a GEO Group executive was “insufficient.” It mostly crowed about a well-staffed corps of immigration health professionals.
ICE’s medical staff may be good enough for ordinary times, but nothing about this is ordinary. There’s no laboratory on site; they don’t do X-rays, conduct specialized treatments, provide intensive care or ventilators.
The detention center is supposed to consult with Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department to assess testing needs, but department officials told us: “Our regulatory role with NWIPC is limited to inspecting food preparation and service.”
State and local leaders can’t stop pressing for answers, bypassing ICE as needed and raising a red flag to the White House coronavirus task force. Inslee should make the most of access he’s established with Vice President Mike Pence.
Word must spread that there’s no COVID-19 “what-if?” plan at the NWIPC. For now, the only tactic is an 11th-hour intervention should an outbreak occur, placing a greater burden on Tacoma’s already hard-pressed healthcare workers. And that’s unacceptable.
S.O.S. indeed.
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