Immigration and Customs Enforcement says its detention center at the Bergen County Jail in New Jersey is about 50% over capacity, raising concerns about the spread of the coronavirus as lawyers continue to struggle to get medically-compromised immigrants out of detention.
A document from ICE, submitted by immigration attorneys to federal court as part of a national class-action lawsuit to release immigrant detainees at risk of death, indicates that the facility was 71% over capacity in November and 41% over capacity last month. A spokesperson for the New York field office for ICE, which oversees detainees at the facility, said the data was inaccurate and the jail is actually under capacity, but more information to explain the discrepancy was not immediately available.
The Bergen County Jail Sheriff’s Office, which gets a $110-per-detainee daily rate from ICE to jail detainees, also denies that there is overcrowding. A spokeswoman for Sheriff Anthony Cureton, a Democrat elected to the position in 2018, said that the ICE dorms are actually below capacity, at 15 detainees per unit. She said there are about 500 inmates at the facility, including ICE detainees, and the capacity is 1,150 people. The jail is in compliance with state social distancing guidelines, she said.
Still, the statistics back up concerns raised by detainees that they are unable to keep safe from COVID inside the jail, due to overcrowding and lax medical care. Their complaints came to a head late last year, when a series of hunger strikes behind bars sparked near-daily anti-ICE protests outside the jail, some of which led to clashes with police.
Cureton, the sheriff, has repeatedly defended the medical care and overall treatment of ICE detainees, saying they are cared for and protected from the coronavirus.
Sheriff Anthony Cureton outside the jail
Thirteen detainees at the Bergen County Jail now have COVID, the most of any ICE detention center in New York or New Jersey, according to ICE. Court papers show that ICE estimates 35% of the population at Bergen is medically compromised, and at risk of getting COVID.
The class-action lawsuit, known as Fraihat vs. ICE, was initially filed in 2019 seeking the release of detainees. Last year, a federal judge ordered ICE to review the files of all detainees to see if they should be released based on medical risk factors that increase their chances of contracting COVID.
But lawyers say ICE has not complied with the court’s order, dragging its feet in reviewing cases and refusing to release the most vulnerable, even as facilities continue to lack soap, PPE, and proper medical care. They allege that ICE doesn’t provide medical records, ignores requests for weeks, and rejects releases for unclear reasons. Last week the attorneys asked the court to appoint a special master to ensure ICE complies.
At Bergen, detainees have repeatedly been denied release under Fraihat. Frustrated, dozens went on hunger strike last year to demand their releases, and a few alleged that ICE officers threatened to ignore the court order by not reviewing their cases unless they started eating.
An anti-ICE protest at the jail.
“To us, that is a clear violation of the court’s order,” said Veronica Salama, an attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center, which brought the Fraihat suit. “You can't withhold someone's [review] because of their constitutionally protected activity. And so that's one way that we've seen the New York [ICE] field office violating the court's order.”
Last fall, about 30 detainees from the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark were moved, without warning or explanation, to the Bergen County Jail. Lawyers involved in the Fraihat case say the movement of people in and out of institutionalized spaces can contribute to the spread of COVID.
There have been nearly 9,000 COVID cases at ICE’s 118 facilities. One estimate showed that the rapid spread of COVID inside those facilities is responsible for 245,000 people nationwide contracting the virus.
This article was updated on February 1st with a comment from ICE, which initially declined to respond to this story.
Matt Katz reports on air at WNYC about immigration, refugees, hate, and national security. You can follow him on Twitter at @mattkatz00.
