The immediate release of 22 people held by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at county jails in Pennsylvania was ordered by a federal judge while they wait for final decisions on their immigration cases.
U.S. Middle District Judge John E. Jones III said that the measures against coronavirus “are not working” at the facilities.
On March 31, he first ordered the release of a dozen other people ICE was holding at the York, Clinton and Pike county prisons.
The detainees suffer from chronic medical conditions and face “an imminent risk of death or serious injury if exposed to COVID-19,” Judge John E. Jones wrote in Tuesday’s decision.
“We have before us clear evidence that the protective measures in place in the York and Pike County prisons are not working,” Jones wrote. “We can only expect the number of positive COVID-19 cases to increase in the coming days and weeks, and we cannot leave the most fragile among us to face that growing danger unprotected.”
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The federal judge remarked the difficult implications of this decisión.“We are mindful that judicial decisions such as these are both controversial and difficult for the public to absorb,” Jones continued. “It is all too easy for some to embrace the notion that individuals such as Petitioners should be denied relief simply because they lack citizenship in this country.”
“However, the…courts do not operate according to polls or the popular will, but rather to do justice and to rule according to the facts and the law,” he concluded.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Pennsylvania had claimed that age, health problems and prison crowding made detainees vulnerable to the COVID-19. The ACLU said Tuesday that four ICE detainees and four staff at the Pike prison have tested positive for the virus, as has one detainee in the York lockup.
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“Our clients are at great risk of getting sick or even dying if they remain in immigration detention. The court understood that and recognized that the preventive measures in the jails are not working,” said Witold Walczak, the ACLU’s legal director. Today’s ruling underscores the very real public health crisis that is occurring and will continue to occur in jails and prisons if corrections officials do not respond appropriately.”
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