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Josmith used to dread the night inside an ICE detention cell because it meant he would be breathing for hours.
The 25-year-old Haitian asylum seeker was diagnosed with asthma in 2015 and had it under control with medication — but after entering ICE’s Cibola County Correctional Center in Milan, New Mexico, Josmith’s condition worsened as he struggled to breathe throughout the day. , and it’s always harder when trying to sleep. The fear of catching COVID in the tight confines of a detention center doesn’t help.
Josmith said he felt “suffocated” and “could die here.”
ICE detainees like Josmith, who because of pre-existing medical conditions are at risk of serious side effects from being exposed to COVID-19, could be released under a federal court order issued in 2020 that identifies all ICE detainees at higher risk of illness and death and strongly consider releasing them unless they are dangerous to property or people.
On October 7, 2020, the court filed the case, US District Judge Jesus Bernal said that “only in rare cases” will ICE fail to release at-risk immigrants who are not subject to mandatory detention.
Hundreds of immigrants have since been released. But as the pandemic progresses, attorneys and advocates say immigrants like Josmith are falling through the cracks. In order to free some medically vulnerable people, advocates must pressure ICE, but advocates say that is not a solution for detainees who do not have access to legal representation.
Initially, Josmith, who agreed to be identified for this story only by her first name, said she made more than a dozen requests to see a doctor about her asthma, but was ignored. He was finally able to see a doctor in early February after nearly collapsing from lack of oxygen. Medical staff at the Cibola County Correctional Center, which is operated for ICE by the private prison company CoreCivic, told Josmith that he had high blood pressure. He was given medicine and told he would see the doctor again in the morning, but that never happened. On Feb. 7, three days after he collapsed, he was given an inhaler to treat his asthma, ICE said.
His attorney, Zoe Bowman of Las America Immigrant Advocacy Center, said that despite his medical condition, ICE refused to release him under a court order.
What may have contributed to Josmith’s struggle to be released was that he did not tell immigration officials that he had asthma. Bowman said Josmith then tried to inform the medical staff by making requests to the doctor which were all ignored. In an effort to get Josmith released, Bowman also sent a certified copy and translation of his asthma diagnosis from Haiti.
“Having asthma was a clear and immediate reason for him to be released,” Bowman said.
Bowman noted that he had to send numerous emails to ICE and make phone calls to press for the release of immigrants with high-risk medical conditions who had been detained for months.
“It doesn’t feel like ICE is complying with the order,” he said. “There are quite a few pro bono attorneys serving thousands of ICE beds, and it seems like they just came across these cases by chance.”
When Bowman asked ICE how many medical requests Josmith had submitted, the agency said they hadn’t received them since November.
“It seems like this weird situation where the official records don’t match what happened in custody,” he said. “The lack of medical care has led to some terrifying conditions for people who have been held there for months and months.”
Josmith was released from the Cibola County Correctional Center on Feb. 16 after the agency received an inquiry about his status from BuzzFeed News.
In a statement, ICE officials said Josmith had been given an Albuterol inhaler on February 7 and released on February 16. They were released in an alternative to detention program, ICE said, which uses technology and case management to track immigrants outside. arrested.
“ICE continues to evaluate individuals based on CDC guidance for people at increased risk of illness due to COVID-19 to determine if continued detention is appropriate,” the immigration enforcement agency said.
ICE said Josmith had been ordered removed by an immigration judge, but filed a pending appeal on January 14.
Matthew Davio, a spokesman for Corecivic, said in a statement that the company is deeply concerned about everyone it cares about. All of these immigration facilities are closely monitored by ICE and must undergo regular reviews, he said.
Cibola County Correctional Center’s health services team follows CoreCivic standards for medical care and ICE’s National Performance-Based Detention Standards, Davio said.
Corecivic, Davio said, has no role or influence in the release process for immigrants who are medically vulnerable due to COVID-19.
“Our staff is trained and held to the highest ethical standards. Our commitment to keeping those in our care safe and secure is our top priority,” said Davio. “We strongly deny allegations of prisoner abuse.”
The Cibola County Correctional Center has been criticized for years for its lack of medical care for immigrants housed there.
In 2020, Reuters discovered hundreds of unanswered requests for medical care at ICE’s special detention unit for transgender immigrants, located at the Cibola County Correctional Center. The report also found that quarantine procedures were not followed and that prisoners suffering from mental illness and chronic illnesses received poor treatment. The issue led to the temporary closure and transfer of transgender women to other ICE facilities.
A secret memo sent by Department of Homeland Security officials to ICE leaders obtained by BuzzFeed News reveals how immigrants at the Cibola County Detention Center sometimes waited up to 17 days for needed medical care, subject to poor sanitation and quarantine practices during the outbreak. smallpox and mumps, and not getting medicine as directed by doctors for diseases such as diabetes, epilepsy, and tuberculosis.
The Cibola County ICE facility has 44 confirmed cases of COVID since testing in 2020. The total number of infections rose from 25 in mid-January to 44 on February 1. The average daily population for the facility has been around 83 since November.
However, the UCLA School of Law’s COVID Behind Bars Data Project, which tracks infections among detainees across the U.S., said the actual number could be higher than ICE reports because testing has been limited.
“Any number that ICE reports is an undercount because it’s not widely tested,” said Joshua Manson, a spokesman for the UCLA project, which sees some unexplained fluctuations in the cumulative number of ICE-reported COVID cases and tests.
The project gave ICE an F grade on its “data and quality reporting” scorecard.
Since ICE began testing for the virus, there have been 40,358 confirmed cases across all detention facilities, according to the agency’s numbers. As of Monday there were 1,001 active cases.
Another Haitian asylum seeker, Fristzner, who declined to give his full name because he didn’t want to jeopardize his pending case, said he also struggled to receive medical care in ICE custody while trying to be released.
In 2015, a 32-year-old man lost his right eye after being stabbed after participating in a protest against local politicians in Haiti. Those who attacked him were sent by politicians, he said. Fristzner moved to another part of the island nation, but the bandits, who controlled much of Haiti, always threatened him. After being attacked again in 2017 by gunmen in his home, he left Haiti.
Fristzner tried to live in Chile, but said racism and lack of immigration status made it difficult for Black immigrants. A group of people once beat and robbed him on the street when he made racist comments, he said. So, like thousands of other Haitians in South America, Fristzner made the perilous journey to the US-Mexico border last summer. Along the way, he crossed 10 countries and passed through the forested Darién Gap, a route UNICEF called one of the most dangerous in the world, where Fristzner said he saw dead bodies as he walked north.
Eventually, Fristzner joined the thousands of Haitians who crossed the border into Del Rio, Texas, to seek asylum, only to spend days in squalid conditions under a bridge. After being processed and detained at ICE in September 2021, Fristzner said he began to worry that the area where his eye was infected. To make matters worse, he said, he also had overall vision loss in his left eye and was worried he would lose the ability to see.
In ICE custody, Fristzner said, he can’t read the Bible, make phone calls, or do other basic tasks without help because of his vision loss. Bowman, who also took him on as a client, said ICE initially refused to release him because he said he was a threat to public safety, despite having no criminal record and no immigration history in the US.
Fristzner said she sent at least 15 requests to see a doctor but to no avail. Meanwhile, with each passing day, the vision became more and more worrying.
“I only have one eye,” Fristzner said. “How am I supposed to live if I can’t see?”
He believed his eyes were infected from his days under the bridge in Del Rio. He tried calling Las America’s Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso for pro bono representation — but, like most organizations that work with immigrants, it was overwhelmed and people asking for help couldn’t get through. However, Fristzner continued to leave messages.
“One time I called at night when everyone was sleeping and I prayed to God to help me,” he said. “The next day, an official told me that I had an official visit from him.”
Bowman was eventually able to begin pressuring ICE and was released, but only after the agency fielded questions from reporters and members of Congress. Fristzner now lives with his sister in Indiana.
He was later diagnosed with glaucoma, a condition that usually causes vision loss because the nerves that connect the eye to the brain are damaged. However, he hopes to go to school and hopes to resolve his asylum case.
“I’m with my family now and it’s better,” he said. “But I keep thinking about my friends in prison who are sick and can’t get out. I think about them because I know they are suffering.”
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