U.S. Rep. Jason Crow is taking on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over detainees once again, this time calling for a halt on transfers between ICE-operated and contract facilities during the pandemic.
Crow has been a critic and sometimes protester of operations and an expansion plan at the ICE detention facility in his district in Aurora, warning of the potential for disease outbreaks there more than a year ago.
You can read more about his work on ICE by clicking here.
He alleges transferring detainees will spread the virus and expose detainees, staff and the community.
“The movement and exposure of those brought in through enforcement and removal operations prior to their detention is unknown,” he wrote to acting ICE director Matthew Albence. “While there may be a record of potential exposure for detainees transferred from another facility, it is not necessarily reassuring.
“In fact, one of the new detainees was placed in isolation upon arrival from the Sterling Correctional Facility, which has the largest single COVID-19 outbreak in Colorado.”
Crow asserts in the letter that the transfers are made to meet contract minimums for the facilities.
“These practices raise serious questions about the existing public health standards and procedures in both detention facilities operated by ICE and contract facilities nationwide,” he states.
