Immigration court inside Krome detention center closes for coronavirus cleaning
The immigration court inside the Krome detention center in South Miami-Dade will be closed at least through Tuesday for deep sanitation, according to federal officials.
The Executive Office for Immigration Review would not tell the Miami Herald nor its own employees whether anybody that had visited the courtroom tested positive for COVID-19, but called the abrupt closures and reopening of courts across the country a “dynamic situation” on its webpage.
The agency phoned its employees Monday morning to tell them the workplace would be closed. When its employees asked whether they had been exposed to the coronavirus in the courthouse, they were told by management that all precautions were being taken to sanitize the premises.
“We weren’t told who may have been exposed and whether the case was a positive, just that someone may have it. We still don’t know whether it was a court employee, lawyer, guard or detainee,” a court staffer told the Miami Herald. “We were told we will go back to work once they clean everything.”
The small courtroom is located inside Krome, a facility that houses thousands of detained immigrants. Some immigration courthouses are stand-alone buildings, like the downtown Miami immigration courthouse. Others, called “detained courts,” are located inside detention centers for easier access to detainees.
As state and local courtrooms across the country have shuttered their doors, the Miami Herald reported earlier this month that immigration courtroom closures are being decided on a case-by-case basis by the White House itself.
For almost three weeks, immigration judges across the country, as well as prosecutors and immigration lawyers, have banded together to demand that the government close down their courts amid the COVID-19 crisis. Many have said they are being kept at work despite having been exposed to the coronavirus at a time when everyone is being told to practice social distancing.
According to an email obtained by the Herald, immigration court staffers and judges at a courthouse were told by court management that the decisions to close are out of their control.
“Decisions for closure are beyond the agency level; but rather are forwarded to [the Department of Justice] and ultimately the White House,” the email said. “Please understand that decisions for court closures are based upon individual incidents at each respective court.”
In the last few weeks, federal employees inside Krome have told the Herald that several sections of the facility have had to be quarantined had after detainees developed flu-like symptoms and were sent to the hospital.
While ICE has told the Miami Herald that there are no confirmed cases of coronavirus inside Florida detention centers as of Monday, detainees and family members of those inside say conditions are worsening by the day, with several pods and almost 100 inmates still in quarantine. In some instances, some detainees were taken to the hospital.
The ICE public affairs office said the agency in general has conducted COVID-19 tests but wouldn’t say how many and if there are still any pending results.
“That isn’t something we have to provide,” said ICE spokeswoman Tamara Spicer, in an email. “We don’t have data on the number of tests, but we’re testing detainees and employees as appropriate per the CDC guidelines. And all persons arriving at an ICE facility are being screened.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testing guidelines cited by ICE, people who qualify for COVID-19 examinations are those who are already hospitalized, people 65 and older and people with underlying health conditions who have symptoms.
