USA: first death of a migrant in Covid-19 detention

US immigration police said on Thursday the first death of an undocumented migrant from the Covid-19 in one of its detention centers, described by human rights activists as " death traps ". " 57-year-old detainee from Otay Mesa detention center, who has been hospitalized since late April, died yesterday morning of Covid-19 complications," spokeswoman Sarah Sweeney told AFP. from the San Diego County, California health agency where this detention center is located.

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It is the first death linked to the new coronavirus known to date in detention centers for migrants in the United States, where 705 cases are officially recorded, including 132 for the only center of Otay Mesa, managed by a private operator under contract. " Otay Mesa has the highest number of Covid-19 cases among all the immigration police detention centers in the country, " said the ACLU, a powerful human rights organization. " The migrants detained there have dubbed it the" death trap "because of the lack of precautionary measures taken by staff, " said the ACLU.

Respecting the rules of physical distance is almost impossible in these centers, where the available surface is only 110 m2 per 100 detainees, according to testimonies of migrants collected by AFP. Seized by the ACLU, a federal judge last week ordered the immediate release of the most vulnerable detainees in these centers. According to the organization, the immigration police (ICE) had identified 130 people meeting these criteria but released only two.

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" Today, one of these people died because the ICE refused to release her while she still had a chance to survive this deadly virus ," said in a statement Monika Langarica, lawyer specializing in the rights of migrants to the ACLU. “ It was a terrible tragedy that was perfectly possible to foresee and avoid. For months, public health experts and detention officials have warned that these centers will be cultivation broths for Covid-19, and a death trap for thousands of people, "said Andrea Flores, deputy director of migration policies for the ACLU. Asked by AFP, the immigration police did not react Thursday at midday.