The Biden administration says it wants to make every adult in the United States eligible for vaccination by May — and immigration agents have said they would not interfere with efforts to vaccinate undocumented immigrants outside of detention. But lawyers for immigrants who are detained say there is no urgency to vaccinate those in federal custody against a deadly pathogen that can spread fast in confined spaces.
“ICE has no plan to provide vaccines on a systemwide basis,” said Melissa Riess, a staff attorney for Disability Rights Advocates in California, one of several nonprofits that filed a federal lawsuit in California seeking the release of detainees with high-risk health conditions. “That’s having horrendous consequences. It seems like they’re doing nothing.”
The California case is one of dozens of legal battles riveted on the immigration agency’s treatment of civil immigration detainees during the pandemic. The coronavirus has ripped through many of ICE’s detention facilities, infecting nearly 10,000 detainees and killing nine. At least 370 detainees are currently positive for the virus, according to agency records.
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