More than 50% of illegal immigrants who have undergone a coronavirus test while being held at Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers have tested positive, and the number is expected to climb in the coming weeks, according to a senior ICE official.
Since March, the Department of Homeland Security agency has administered 2,781 tests. Of those tested, 1,461 people have tested positive, up from 1,200 cases last week. ICE knows of 754 detainees in custody as of Sunday who have the virus.
“The numbers are increasing because of the fact that we have more testing capability, and we’re testing more individuals so that in itself is going to help us identify more positive cases,” said Dr. Ada Rivera, medical director for ICE Health Service Corps, which oversees healthcare at dozens of detention facilities nationwide. Rivera testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday morning.
ICE will begin this week testing detainees as they arrive at detention facilities. Until this week, anyone entering ICE facilities, where detainees are held as a judge decides their cases, would be placed into a 14-day quarantine with other new arrivals before being released into the general population cell blocks.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, was stunned to hear ICE detainees were only tested if they exhibited symptoms of the virus.
“I’m very interested in seeing that everyone is tested,” Feinstein said. “The test is so simple. If you have to wait, you may be spreading the disease.”
Presently, ICE detention facilities are at 44% occupancy, said Henry Lucero, ICE executive associate director. ICE facilities can hold more than 50,000 detainees. But since late February, when the coronavirus emerged in the United States, its facilities have seen fewer new arrivals while pending removal cases are being resolved, resulting in a decline from 38,000 detainees to 26,000.
In January and February, ICE was arresting and detaining between 2,500 and 3,000 people weekly. Following complaints from Democratic lawmakers and immigrant advocate groups, ICE announced it would limit its arrests during the pandemic. In each of the past seven weeks, ICE officers have arrested and detained between 1,000 and 1,500 people.
As of mid-April, 700 detainees had been released because they faced serious risk from the coronavirus if held with dozens of other people in a cell block.
The ICE officials defended the agency’s testing standards over the past two and a half months and said they took guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which states that people showing symptoms in congregated living areas should be given tests.
