....we don't have a plan for immigrants that test positive for COVID. If citizens are told to self-isolate, don't immigrants deserve a place to do the same?
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/coronav...917.1614786203
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is working closely with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other federal, state, and local agencies to support the whole-of-government effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 and keep everyone safe.
However, they are provided no isolation area nor provided treatment if needed. They are simply released.
https://www.globaldetentionproject.o...vid-19-updates
In a commentary published in December by the American Journal of Public Health, “
Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 in Immigration Detention Centres Requires the Release of Detainees,” a group of public health experts in the United States argue that “safely releasing detainees from immigration detention centres into their communities is the most effective way to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in these settings. Failure to do so will result in infection and death from a novel communicable disease and deepen inequities for a population group that already experiences many structural and systemic threats to health and well-being.”
A separate report published by the advocacy group Detention Watch Network argued that
counties with ICE detention centres were more likely to report COVID-19 cases earlier in the pandemic and more likely to have a serious outbreak. The group contends that the US detention system’s ineffective efforts to control the virus helped lead to an additional 245,000 cases across the United States by 1 August 2020. In one case from May 2020, officials in Pearsall said that every local case of COVID-19 could be traced back to ICE’s South Texas processing centre, operated by GEO Group, and that the company had failed to properly keep the community informed of developing cases.
Since we are reworking our immigration process,isn't now the time to designate facilities specifically for COVID positive immigrants?
Surely the cost of releasing Covid positive people who have no established residence or place to self-isolate doesn't outweigh the cost of introducing more Covid into our population.