The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE, for its acronym in English) has begun this week to vaccinate immigrants detained at its Mississippi centers against the coronavirus, as confirmed by the state Department of Health to Noticias Telemundo.
The federal agency has not clarified whether it is carrying out similar vaccinations in other states, although it did say that it works with local authorities to "make sure" they immunize detained immigrants.
The vaccination at the two Mississippi detention centers (in Adams and Tallahatchie counties) is part of the campaign to immunize the general prison population, following months of reports of increased coronavirus infections and reports of sanitary negligence.
Since March 2020, when the pandemic began, 531 immigrants detained by ICE have been infected with COVID-19, according to figures from the federal agency.
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"ICE has been working with state and local health departments to ensure its detainee population is included in state vaccination plans," said an agency spokeswoman in Louisiana.
Relatives of Hispanics detained in Mississippi have confirmed the start of vaccination, but have also expressed concern that they are being immunized for deportation to their home countries.
"In case they were deported, they are given a document as proof that they were vaccinated,"
said the sister of Roberto Cedeño Sánchez, a detained Cuban migrant.
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Immigrants have spent months denouncing the unsanitary conditions of detention and the risk of contagion that this implies in the midst of the pandemic, and both their families and the organizations that defend their rights have demanded that they be released while they resolve their asylum cases.
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The health departments at the state and local level are in charge of assigning vaccines to detainees,
in terms that vary
according to the availability of doses and the priority criteria of each state.
Most states have followed the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which indicates that healthcare workers and high-risk groups such as people 65 and older should be the first to get the injection.
Negligence and lack of information about the virus
In January, a report by Noticias Telemundo Investiga revealed how ICE punished immigrants who protested sanitary conditions during the pandemic.
In some cases he
used pepper spray and isolation cells.
In others, it prohibited them from communicating with their relatives.
“I was on my knees praying with my bible and they pushed me.
They pepper sprayed us, ”explained Julio Lemus-Díaz from Guatemala.
The immigrant claimed to have been attacked while praying in the courtyard with other detainees, in protest, in the Catahoula correctional center, Louisiana.
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Detained migrants described widespread medical negligence and lack of information about the virus, a shortage of basic supplies (masks, soap, tests) and retaliation for complaining or reporting.
Detainees will not be the only ones receiving the vaccine.
The office that administers the health programs of the Department of Veterans Affairs
will
also
offer doses to
front-line
employees
of the Department of Homeland Security, including ICE agents.
Reporter Belisa Morillo contributed with this note
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