‘It needs to stop.’ California leaders urge Gavin Newsom to stop ICE transfers from prisons
Charles Joseph says he was granted parole in May of last year after spending 12 years in prison.
Joseph, convicted of robbing a convenience store in 2007, looked forward to reuniting with his mother and wife, who waited in the parking lot the day of his release. He never got to see them, he said, because he was immediately detained by ICE.
Amid the pandemic, Joseph said he saw cramped conditions that didn’t make social distancing possible and a lack of cleaning supplies. In April, the Indo-Fijian immigrant community leader was released from the Mesa Verde Detention Center.
“On behalf of my brothers and sisters in detention centers, I am here requesting an end to ICE putting lives in danger,” Joseph said at a Monday press conference.
In a letter released Monday, 60 state and local elected officials and 108 community organizations urged Gov. Gavin Newsom to issue an executive order halting transfers to ICE detention centers from prisons and jails during the state of emergency caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
“This is something that is avoidable, something that is in the hands of California to change and something that we should change,” said Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, who spearheaded the effort.
During a Senate Public Safety Committee hearing last week, CDCR Secretary Ralph Diaz noted that CDCR makes contact with law enforcement agencies, including ICE, that initially place a hold or warrant on an inmate prior to the inmate’s release. Diaz said inmates are not physically transported to ICE.
“We handle ICE just like we would any law enforcement entity who is requesting that they’re going to pick them up,” Diaz said.
The letter describes how detainees in three of California’s detention centers have spoken out about and organized hunger strikes to call attention to overcrowding, the influx of new detainees and the absence of sufficient medical care, clean water, cleaning supplies and personal protective equipment.
To illustrate unsafe conditions in the centers, they cited the example of Salvadoran immigrant Carlos Escobar-Mejia, 57. During the early hours of May 6, he was pronounced dead at a hospital after testing positive for the coronavirus 12 days prior.
Before his hospitalization, Escobar-Mejia since January had been under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody at Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, where he contracted the virus, according to ICE.
At the time of his death, Escobar-Mejia had lived in the U.S. for 40 years. A medical exam indicated he had hypertension, and he self-reported he had diabetes. On April 15, an immigration judge denied him bond after considering him a flight risk, according to ICE.
Several members of the California Legislative Latino Caucus signed the letter, including Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula, D-Fresno.
“As a doctor, I see the alarming number of COVID-19 cases climbing in our state and believe this type of transfer policy is inhumane and will only exacerbate the spread of this virus during this pandemic, affecting not only adults but children,” Arambula said in a statement. “We must protect the health of everyone. As I and others have been saying, the health of each of us depends on the health of all of us.”
In late June, a federal judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District in California ordered the release of children in ICE custody over COVID-19 concerns. The Court order applies to children who have been held in two detention centers located in Texas and one in Pennsylvania for more than 20 days.
“Although progress has been made, the Court is not surprised that COVID-19 has arrived at both the (family residential centers) and (office of refugee resettlement) facilities, as health professionals have warned all along that individuals living in congregate settings are more vulnerable to the virus,” wrote Judge Dolly M. Gee. “The FRCs are ‘on fire’ and there is no more time for half measures.”
Last week, State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, spoke against transferring individuals to ICE detention facilities at the Senate Public Safety Committee hearing. He also expressed concern about the COVID-19 outbreak at the San Quentin State Prison.
“ICE is not focused on helping people who are (COVID-19) negative, remain negative. So the last thing that the state of California should be doing is sending people over to ICE into these unsafe, unhealthy and inhumane private prisons,” he said at the press conference. “It needs to stop.”
Between January and May, an estimated 575 individuals were transferred to ICE from CDCR, according to Angela Chan, policy director and senior staff attorney for the Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus.
This story was originally published July 7, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "‘It needs to stop.’ California leaders urge Gavin Newsom to stop ICE transfers from prisons."