Covid infections surge in immigration detention facilities

Maria Sacchetti for the Washington Post offers the latest on a pressing pandemic problem for immigrants in detention. As Kit Johnson blogged in January, coronavirus infections inside U.S. immigration detention centers reportedly  surged by 520% in 2022.

Sacchetti reports that

“Coronavirus infections in federal immigration detention centers have surged to record highs, with at least one detainee taken to the hospital in recent days, increasing pressure on the Biden administration from advocates to release migrants or at least ensure that they are given booster shots.

More than 3,100 detainees were fighting infections late last week, about 14 percent of the detained population and well past the peak of 2,100 last May, according to the nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice, which tracks the issue.”

 KJ