(Photo : pxhere)

With the booming number of COVID-19 cases in the US, ICE border detention facilities are like petri dishes ideal for the spread of the viral disease. Housing more than 38,000 individuals in these limited facilities make it impossible to impose social distancing and practice sanitation like frequent hand washing. Some interviewed immigrants complained that they even have to buy their soap from the commissaries.

Though ICE implements a strict protocol to screen incoming immigrant detainees with symptoms, advocates and authorities are still skeptical about it. Now, family members are also not allowed to visit these detention centers.

Sylvia Garcia, the U.S. Representative for Texas is one of the skeptics that advocate for the release of immigrant detainees that poses no threat to the general public.

"ICE's failure to reduce detention numbers and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 has a real possibility of creating a severe health crisis for detention centers and overwhelming local health care facilities," Garcia said.

With nine cases reported of COVID-19 infection in detention facilities, nine of whom are immigrants, ICE must consider a more aggressive action. They can resort to either preventing or mitigating the spread of the viral disease--the former being the ideal action.

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Since these centers are lacking in basic commodities from the beginning, opening up new facilities will not solve the issue. This will still expose the vulnerable detainees, the children, the elderly and those who are immunocompromised, to the viral disease.

As the number of cases increases each day, hospitals become overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. Immigrant detainees with no access to health insurance and assistance from the government will greatly suffer. Worst is being denied freedom once these detention centers start to succumb to the viral disease.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus together with the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Immigrant Justice Centers demand ICE to release immigrant detainees that are vulnerable and those who are not public safety risks. 

Take the United Kingdom as an example, releasing one-third of the 900 immigrant detainees as a preventive measure to avoid outbreaks in institutional settings.

As stated by the New York Representative, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who also agrees to this proposition "This is a humanitarian crisis that is right on our doorstep. A decision to do nothing is a decision to harm." However, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has yet to produce any kind of plan as to the proper way of releasing these illegal immigrants. The Trump administration on the other hand is actively finding ways to minimize the spread of the infectious diease.

Now that New York is the epidemic center of COVID-19 cases in the United States, advocates and politicians want to take preventive actions instead of mitigating measures. The disease is highly infectious which is rapidly increasing once a case has been reported. Being one of the crowded cities in the United States, New Yorkers already know the value of social distancing and proper sanitation to keep the number of cases steady.