238 detainees at Krome detention center have been exposed to the coronavirus
The Krome detention center has placed 238 immigration detainees in quarantine after they were exposed to the coronavirus, the head of the south Miami-Dade facility told a federal judge Wednesday.
In a sworn statement, Liana J. Castano, the acting director in charge of the Krome facility, says that at least one detainee on the premises has been confirmed to have COVID-19 and has since been placed in medical isolation, as well as two security officers who have been ordered to quarantine at home.
Castano noted that the 238 detainees have been grouped together in an isolated area for at least 14 days. Each of the detainees have been confirmed to have been exposed to someone who has tested positive for the coronavirus.
The statement, filed in Miami federal court, was provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in response to a legal organization’s request that their client, a Jamaican national, also be released from detention at Krome amid the global pandemic and worsening conditions inside the facility.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams had ordered immigration officials to explain what the federal agency is doing to protect detainees inside from catching or spreading the virus.
In the declaration filed on Wednesday morning, Castano explained that the agency has medical and mental healthcare staffers on site and that all detainees coming into the facility are having their temperature taken before being admitted. Detainees are also being asked if they have traveled to a COVID-19 hot spot in the past 14 days, and if they’ve had any contact with anyone that has tested positive.
If the answer is yes, the detainee is isolated for 14 days with others who also answered yes. Castano also said Krome has the ability to take detainees to nearby hospitals if needed.
“Krome has increased sanitation frequency and provides sanitation supplies,” she said, noting that staffers disinfect housing units every shift and that each housing unit is provided with disinfectant wipes, soap and hot water.
The Jamaican national told the Miami Herald that he was ultimately released on Tuesday night.
“ICE’s sworn declaration in response to a federal court order that it provide information regarding the steps being taken to ensure the health and safety of detainees at Krome is disturbing and a clear warning of an impending public health disaster,” said Gregory Copeland, the Jamaican national’s attorney.
Copeland is a lawyer with the Rapid Defense Network, a immigration legal rights group based in New York.
“It is disturbing to see no mention of implementing the single most effective self-protective measure: social distancing,” he added. “Rather, ICE is continuing to intake people into a facility that has three confirmed cases of COVID-19 and nearly 300 others believed to have been exposed. That ICE is only forthcoming with this information following a court order erodes any trust that the agency is abiding by its obligations to ensure the safety of people in its custody.”
Wednesday’s declaration by ICE comes a day after the Herald reported that a 29-year-old Mexican national who was transported to a hospital from the Krome detention center tested positive for the coronavirus. It is unclear if this detainee was the one noted in the federal document because the Mexican national is still in the hospital.
For weeks — and as recently as Monday — ICE has repeatedly told the Herald that no detainees in its custody in Florida have tested positive for the virus. However, the agency got around having to disclose that any detainee was sick with COVID-19 because the detainee was technically no longer on the premises, but rather at a hospital, federal sources say.
The Herald also reported that two employees who work at the Krome detention center tested positive for the coronavirus. The two guards work for Akima Global Services, the government contractor that operates the facility for ICE. Federal sources say additional AGS officers have since “tested positive and many more of the officers are either pending testing or pending results.”
For about a month, ICE has published on its website the number of confirmed coronavirus cases for its detainees and federal employees nationwide. As of Tuesday afternoon, 19 detainees and seven ICE detention-center employees nationwide have tested positive for the virus.
However, those numbers do not reflect the number of third-party contractors who work at ICE facilities who have tested positive for COVID-19, or detainees who are at hospitals with the illness.
ICE’s website also doesn’t mention how many people at its facilities have been tested or are being monitored for the virus because that “isn’t something we have to provide,” the agency has told the Herald.
This story was originally published April 8, 2020 at 4:30 PM.
