DETENTION DISPATCHES

How ICE Moves Detainees Under the Cover of Darkness.

How Florida Has Become the Epicenter of ICE’s Shameful COVID Response.

Detainees at the Mesa Verde Detention facility stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Adelanto Detention Facility is again in the center of controversy, allegedly using protests taking place outside the facility as an excuse to mistreat detainees.

Arizona has a long history of being home to numerous detention facilities, and currently, the state can hold as many as 7,000 detainees at one time. And perhaps its most dubious distinction is that since 2003, 19 detainees have died within Arizona's detention centers.

Limited protective gear and medical attention, dubious punitive and transfer practices, and crowded conditions that make social distancing almost impossible have all contributed to an environment at Otay Mesa rife for the spread of the virus. But so far detainees’ pleas for help have gone unheeded.

The number of detainees infected by COVID-19 continues to grow at the Otay Mesa Detention Center. On ICE’s website the number of infected detainees at Otay Mesa is listed as 149, the highest known in the country's sprawling network of immigrant detention facilities. The San Diego Union Tribune reported earlier this week that 150 ICE detainees had tested positive for the virus and 67 U.S. Marshals Service inmates tested positive as well, bringing the total to 217 infected detainees at Otay Mesa. CoreCivic is the private company that operates the center for ICE and also holds detainees for the U.S. Marshals service.

We continue our conversation with Anthony Alexandre, a detainee at Otay Mesa.

The Otay Mesa Detention Center in the San Diego County has become ground zero for the COVID-19 pandemic spread within ICE Detention Centers. San Diego County officials confirmed on May 6th, the first death of a detained immigrant in ICE’s custody of COVID-19.

Guest: Anthony Alexandre, a detainee at the Otay Mesa Detention Center. He is one of the main organizers of the hunger strikes that have recently taken place at the detention center. The recent hunger strikes started in protest of the unsanitary and unsafe conditions that the detainees complained about to ICE and CoreCivic, the private company that operates the center for ICE.