Eliza Tebo
Updated on Sept. 22 at 4:22 p.m.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has withdrawn a motion to use a detention facility in Caroline County to quarantine detainees before transferring them to a facility in Farmville, Va. The Farmville center saw a massive coronavirus outbreak earlier this summer, and the withdrawn motion comes after two dozen people at the Caroline County center tested positive for COVID-19.
ICE requested earlier this month that it be allowed to test and quarantine new arrivals and transfers to Farmville at the Caroline County facility in Bowling Green, Va., before their transfer. A judge ordered in August that no new transfers be made to Farmville after an outbreak and one death occurred there this summer. Now the Caroline County center has seen its cases spike from two to 25 in the span of two weeks.
On Monday, ICE withdrew its motion to amend the judge’s order “due to recent developments at the Caroline Detention Facility.”
The order to halt the transfer of detainees to Farmville stems from a lawsuit filed on behalf of Farmville detainees. It alleged that cases skyrocketed at the Farmville facility after ICE transferred 74 detainees, 51 of whom tested positive for COVID-19, from facilities in Arizona and Florida into crowded conditions in Farmville in June. After that transfer, positive cases at Farmville shot up to some 80% of the detainee population, the suit alleges. And plaintiffs say they were denied medical treatment and “adequate nutrition.”
The Farmville facility has had at least 339 positive COVID-19 cases since February. In August, a 72-year-old man died in custody there after contracting the virus. ICE says there are currently no coronavirus cases at the center and that no transfers have been made to Farmville since June 2.
“Defendants, who are collectively charged with caring for these individuals and who should have been working to protect them from the virus, have failed at every step, instead turning Farmville into a COVID-19 tinderbox that has engulfed nearly everyone in the facility, from Plaintiffs to hundreds of other detainees to dozens of staff members,” the lawsuit states.
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, legal director for the Immigrant Advocacy Program at the Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville, is one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the case. He says the outbreak in Caroline County appears to be an intra-facility infection, as he hasn’t seen evidence that the center has recently accepted many new detainees.
“One person may have brought it in, a detainee or guard,” Sandoval-Moshenberg says, “and then unfortunately, if you let your guard down for even one minute with this virus, it’ll spread before you know it. And that unfortunately appears to what happened here.”
ICE did not respond to a question regarding the likelihood of an intra-facility spread at the Caroline County facility, which currently has 168 detainees. An ICE spokesperson said intake at the center has continued and that new detainees are “tested and quarantined” pursuant to test results.
“The key issue, and what they really haven’t been focusing on, unfortunately, is how to prevent the virus from spreading within the facility, and then of course, after that, how to provide adequate medical care for people who do get sick,” Sandoval-Moshenberg says. “If they put all of their eggs in the basket of trying to keep the virus out of the facility, sooner or later it’s going to get in.”
After the Caroline County center identified two detainees with symptoms of the virus, facility management began “voluntary testing of all detainees” held there, an ICE spokesperson told DCist/WAMU via email. The 25 detainees with positive cases have been quarantined and are getting care, the spokesperson said, and individuals who have been in contact with these detainees have been “cohorted and are being monitored for symptoms.”
The court injunction against transfers in and out of Farmville also mandated an inspection of that facility. Earlier this month, an inspector concluded that officials at Farmville ignored public health guidance and failed to offer basic medical care to detainees with COVID-19.
“The multiple and systematic deficiencies in the [facility’s] approach to health services are unlikely to be addressed quickly, and from a medical standpoint, being detained in the [Farmville Detention Center] represents a significant health risk for high-risk patients,” wrote inspector Homer Venters.
Venters, an epidemiologist and former chief medical officer for New York City jails, said the facility should consider releasing people at high risk for COVID-19 complications. He said the deadly outbreak was the result of “mass transfers into the facility.”
Another report by an inspector chosen by facility management said the detention center had no major issues with how it handled the virus. William Reese, who inspected the facility on the same day as Venters, said Farmville staff had responded in a way that was “consistent with” guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
ICE has established protocol for responding to the virus at its detention facilities. More than 6,000 detainees nationwide have tested positive for the virus, and six detainees have died from COVID-19 complications, according to ICE.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) remains committed to ensuring detainees in its custody reside in safe, secure and humane environments under appropriate conditions of confinement,” says the ICE spokesperson.
This story has been updated with additional information from ICE.
Previously:
Man In ICE Custody Dies After Being Held In Farmville Detention Center
More Than 70% Of People Detained At The Farmville Detention Center Are COVID-Positive
Farmville ICE Detention Center With COVID-19 Outbreak Must Stop Transfers, Judge Orders
