He lived in the US for 40 years. Then he became the first to die from Covid-19 in immigration jail

Advocates for weeks called for release of immigrant detainees because of the risk of spread of the pandemic.  Last week, the first known death of a detainee in the United States was announced.

Sam Levin for The Guardian reports on a tragic death of an immigrant in detention.  Levin offers some background about the life of Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejia, who had lived in the United States for four decades. Last week, he became the first person to die from Covid-19 in immigration custody.

Escobar Mejia, 57, came to the US as a teenager, having fled El Salvador after his brother’s murder during the civil war in El Salvador. Last week, he died, after complaining for weeks that he was sick and that his history of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart problems and an amputated foot put him at high risk of succumbing to Covid-19 inside the Otay Mesa detention center.

“He was weak, he should have been released,” his sister Rosa Escobar told the Guardian. “They were refusing to take him to see a doctor. He was begging and screaming for medical attention. He was so scared.”

Escobar Mejia’s death comes as Covid-19 has infected hundreds of detainees in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) jails.   

According to his sister, Escobar Mejia always paid his taxes. Days after his death, she opened a letter in the mail addressed to him: It was his US government stimulus check.

KJ