Unclear plans lead to patchy efforts to vaccinate at-risk ICE detainees against COVID-19
Even with a medical condition that places him at high-risk for contracting COVID-19, 47-year-old immigration detainee, Abdullah, was surprised when he was given the opportunity to be vaccinated in late February.
He had been detained at the Adams County Correctional Center in Mississippi under the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement since October 2019. The bulk of that time was spent in lockdown due to COVID-19 precautions in a dorm room shared with more than 50 other men with limited access to masks, he said.
Abdullah, originally from Tanzania, asked to be identified by first name only due to his immigration status.
“The first thing that came to my mind was, ‘They want to be able to keep us here longer,’” he said. “I had that fear about the vaccine. But the environment we were living in, it never felt safe. I thought I would rather take my chances with the shot.”
Three days later, he was released.
Abdullah’s surprise about vaccine access is not unfounded.
Questions surround vaccine rollout and who's in charge
While the vaccine rollout has increased in the U.S. including some jails and prisons, ICE officials have yet to outline a plan for the more than 14,000 detainees in custody nationwide. It’s unclear how many detainees have received the vaccine and which ICE facilities have started administering them. The agency said in a statement that “a limited number of ICE detainees have begun to receive the COVID-19 vaccine based on availability and priorities for vaccinating individuals in the state where they are currently detained.”
A spokesperson for ICE said the agency “did not have the data” to confirm the number of detainees who had been vaccinated at Adams or in other ICE facilities. They did not address a list of questions, including which facilities have offered the vaccine.
Instead, the agency has left those decisions to local and state health authorities. And the decentralized approach has led to patchwork vaccination efforts in detention centers across the country, according to medical experts.
“The problem is that in most states, officials say vaccinating ICE detainees falls under the purview of the federal government,” said Parsa Erfani, an MD candidate at Harvard Medical School. Erfani provides vaccine education sessions at ICE detention facilities and jails in Massachusetts.
States had to provide vaccination plans to the federal government, including plans for vaccinating inmates in carceral settings to receive vaccines. Most states, except for Louisiana, did not include ICE detainees in their plans, Erfani said.
“There is a miscommunication of who is accountable and who is responsible,” he said.
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By comparison, the Bureau of Prisons, which is also federally run, has worked closely with the Centers for Disease Control to vaccinate close to 100,000 inmates as of March 25. In Massachusetts, the jail population, which includes some ICE detainees, started getting vaccines in January, Erfani said.
Legal action puts on pressure nationwide
Lawsuits have been filed across the country, pressuring ICE to develop plans to ramp up vaccinations in its facilities. The agency was court-ordered to start vaccinating medically-at-risk detainees at the Buffalo Federal Detention Center in Batavia, NY, in late March after a lawsuit was filed over their failure to provide the vaccine.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has filed a class-action lawsuit involving three detention facilities in Florida over inadequate personal protective equipment, failure to provide the COVID-19 vaccine and reduce the population to accommodate social distancing.
Notably, the number of detainees in ICE custody has dropped to a historic low during the pandemic under federal court orders. Advocates and immigration attorneys have filed dozens of lawsuits securing the release of detainees with preexisting medical conditions who are at high risk of contracting COVID-19. There are still more than 3,000 detainees in custody across the Southeast. ICE currently holds contracts with at least 200 county jails and privately-owned prisons in the U.S.
“Their track record of medical care is pretty abysmal. My hope is that there will be fewer people detained. There is no reason to have that many people in a congregate setting,” said Paul Chavez, a senior supervising attorney with the SPLC’s Immigration Justice Campaign. “We know they are not safeguarding them from this disease, and we want to make sure the vaccine is available to those who want it.”
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Several states have begun to address vaccine access for detainees.
In Louisiana, health officials said in a statement that they would take on a more active role reaching out to ICE to inquire about eligible detainees. The state expanded eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine to anyone older than 16 starting March 29. There are currently more than 1,700 people detained in ICE custody in the nine facilities the agency uses in Louisiana.
“Having learned DHS does not intend to immediately vaccinate their detainees, the Louisiana Department of Health is now working to coordinate with their facilities to provide vaccine(s) to eligible detainees.”
In Mississippi, CoreCivic, the company that operates Adams County Correctional Center, is working directly with the state health department to allocate vaccines to individuals in their care, said Ryan Gustin, manager of public affairs for CoreCivic.
“They are following the plan and protocols established by the MSDH (Mississippi State Department of Health) for prioritizing recipients and administering the vaccine,” Gustin said, referring to Adams County Correctional Center.
CoreCivic has administered 5,100 COVID-19 vaccines in 22 facilities in 11 states, including Mississippi and Georgia, according to its website.
Jeremy Jong, a Louisiana- based attorney with the non-profit Al Otro Lado, who worked to secure Abdullah’s release, confirmed his client was vaccinated in late February. Jaclyn Cole, an outreach paralegal with the Southern Poverty Law Center, also confirmed that a client received the first dose of the Moderna vaccine on Feb. 4 at Adams, according to medical records she reviewed. Cole said her client received a second dose on March 4 and remains detained at Adams.
Racing against a virus
The slow rollout comes as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a disproportionate impact on detainees.
“COVID tore through these detention centers. These are among the most high-risk places for spreading infectious diseases,” said Dr. Carlo Foppiano, an infectious disease fellow at the Yale School of Medicine.
Sub-optimal facilities, poor nutrition, and the inability to properly social distance in congregate settings created the perfect condition for infections to spread, he said.
ICE has reported more than 10,000 confirmed cases over the past year. Medical experts however speculate that the number is likely a lot higher due to inadequate testing. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the rate of COVID infection in ICE facilities was 13 times higher than that of the U.S. population between April and August.
“When you get a large number of people detained in a confined setting, it is a breeding ground for infection. Vaccination has to be prioritized,” said Dr. Katherine Peeler, the lead author of the study and a medical expert with the Physicians for Human Rights. “From a pragmatic standpoint, the more people who get vaccinated, the better it is for everyone as far as reaching herd immunity.”
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Vaccines are expected to be available to all adults over the age of 16 by May 1. Dr. Mark Travassos, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, hopes this will further pressure authorities to make sure vaccines are available to vulnerable population members.
“As we move to vaccinate the entire adult population, leaving detention centers out of it is a big concern,” he said. “These places are not completely isolated from the public. They will remain reservoirs for the virus.”
Maria Clark is a general assignment reporter with The American South. Story ideas, tips, questions? Email her at mclark@gannett.com or follow her on Twitter @MariaPClark1. Sign up for The American South newsletter. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.