Gov. Gavin Newsom must stop direct transfers from California prisons to ICE facilities

As you read this, Californians are getting sick and dying in United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities, and it is fully within California’s power to end it.

We haven’t yet, but we must now. You see, California voluntarily and wholly unnecessarily transfers Californians scheduled for release from state prisons and county jails directly into ICE custody.

California is not required to do this. There is no compelling public safety reason to do this. But there is a compelling public health and moral imperative not to do this: Californians are dying and suffering needlessly.

That is why I urge Gov. Gavin Newsom to immediately issue an executive order to stop these dangerous transfers during the coronavirus state of emergency. Joining me in this request are 45 of my colleagues in the California State Assembly and Senate who signed on to a letter calling for this life-saving action.

As California struggles with a rapidly spreading, deadly outbreak of COVID-19, decisive action must be taken to protect the health, safety and well-being of all Californians — including preventing Californians from being unnecessarily sent to for-profit, private ICE detention facilities where the virus continues to spread unchecked.

When Californians have paid their debt to society and earned their release — when they have fulfilled all of their obligations to the criminal justice system — they should be able to return to their communities and their families, where they can shelter in place, physically distance and utilize masks. They shouldn’t be funneled into President Trump’s immigration detention and deportation machine where they will face a potential death sentence during this pandemic.

California currently has five immigrant detention facilities housing more than 4,000 people. More than 90 percent of all immigrants detained in California are held in for-profit, private facilities operated by companies like Core Civic, which runs the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego. And prison and jail transfers make up more than 60 percent of all people in ICE detention.

For years, the Trump Administration has been criticized for its inhumane treatment of immigrants, but never has its complete disregard for human life been more apparent than in the midst of this global pandemic. Caging Californians in overcrowded, tight spaces with no way to practice physical distancing or to follow CDC guidelines has allowed the virus to spread to detainees and staff with fatal consequences. Conditions in private ICE detention facilities are so dire that immigrants held at Mesa Verde in Bakersfield launched a hunger strike this month to call attention to the heightened risk of COVID-19.

On April 26, ICE confirmed that 178 detained individuals tested positive for COVID-19. Two months later, as of June 30, ICE has reported a 15-fold increase in positive cases and a 26 percent positive testing rate with 2,742 positive cases out of 10,513 detained people tested.

The fourth largest outbreak of the virus among all immigration detention facilities in the country is at the Otay Mesa facility in San Diego with 167 cases and counting. In light of the fact that ICE has only tested 12 percent of the 22,805 people locked in immigration detention facilities throughout the country, the number of COVID-19 cases is undoubtedly even higher.

As Gov. Newsom urges Californians to take every precaution to keep each other safe, we must listen to those desperately crying out for our help.

Since March, doctors and advocates have warned of the elevated risk of infection facing those who are incarcerated and detained. And for months now, employees inside the for-profit, private immigration detention centers have raised concerns that these operators are not doing enough to protect lives. Tragically, those fears have now been realized. Experts estimate at least 70 percent of people in ICE detention nationwide could contract the virus. The spread of this virus due to ICE’s negligence not only endangers those locked inside, but the nearby medical infrastructure and the general public in surrounding communities.

The death of Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejia, who died of COVID-19 in May after being detained at Otay Mesa, and the death by suicide of Choung Won Ahn, a 74-year-old immigrant with severe health problems who was transferred from a California prison to Mesa Verde detention facility, have become rallying cries for those demanding change.

These deaths are the product of wholly avoidable, systemic failures.

Fortunately, California still has the power to intervene and avert this humanitarian disaster. An executive order ending direct transfers to ICE during the state of emergency would meet the moment. Gov. Newsom has long been a champion for immigrants and for justice and I am hopeful and optimistic that we can partner together for the benefit of all.

This is a defining moment in our history. We must meet the suffering of our most vulnerable Californians with humanity, compassion and action.

We must immediately suspend the inhumane transfer of formerly incarcerated individuals into for-profit, private ICE facilities.

This story was originally published July 23, 2020 at 7:00 AM.