As usual you either didn't read and or didn't understand what was in your own link.
It was all part of Trump's half-assed response to COVID 'cause, he 'didn't want o panic us'. It was Trump's ICE, you f'ing moron.
It was all part of Trump's half-assed response to COVID 'cause, he 'didn't want o panic us'. It was Trump's ICE, you f'ing moron.
Quote:Internal guidelines addressing PPE use established on April 1 did not require masks for staff or detainees in most circumstances, allowing officer discretion based on their “scope of duties” and “as feasible.” (These guidelines were out of compliance with CDC
recommendations; it is unclear whether they were ever updated.) On April 29, SDPHS’ offers for “anything we can do to help mitigate spread” were ignored.
On May 19, SDPHS’ guidance “strongly urging” facilities to test staff were rebuffed; “just so we’re clear—at this point, we have no intention to mass test our staff,” assistant warden Joseph Roemmich replied. On May 29, SDPHS’ revised guidelines to test all asymptomatic staff and inmates were ignored. On July 2, its offers to provide PPE were rejected.
It took until September 21 for the facility to discuss its “COVID containment plan” with SDPHS. It took until September 23 for the facility to collaborate with SDPHS on testing.
Throughout those months, as Roemmich sent regular updates racking up the case numbers (“+1 staff,” he’d write), SDPHS was forced to circle back to resolve errors, inconsistencies and unreported cases. And, all the while, Otay Mesa was releasing potentially infected detainees into San Diego; no list of “street releases” was provided to SDPHS until September 23.
ICE could not be reached for comment on any of the allegations in this article.
Decisions like this—at Otay Mesa and many other facilities—do not only put the health of staff and detainees like Sierra and Mejia in danger. Experts say that since detained individuals and staff exposed to the virus act as “disease vectors” outside the facility, outbreaks in detention centers can be “catastrophic” for neighboring communities by rapidly overwhelming ICU capacity. California State Senator Scott Wiener has labeled ICE a “known super-spreader” of COVID-19.
On July 17, Sierra was released. While she’s left Otay Mesa, it hasn’t left her—she continues to have flashbacks, nightmares, and insomnia. And she hasn’t left the immigration system, either: she’s in asylum proceedings, and her court date got pushed back from November 4 to April 24 of this year. Her son “is afraid whenever I leave the house that I won’t come back,” she said, “if I had to go back, I don’t think I’d make it out.”
