Washington, DC – Tomorrow, House Democrats are holding a virtual roundtable on ICE’s deadly “response” to the COVID-19 pandemic. The forum will be live streamed at 12:30pm EST.
Following the massive outbreaks of coronavirus in numerous ICE facilities across the nation, and the tragic deaths of Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejia and Oscar Lopez Acosta, an Ohio father, the Interfaith Immigration Coalition (IIC) offers the following questions:
- Why did you ignore the advice of thousands of doctors, including those employed at DHS, who for months said that reducing the detained population is vital to preventing COVID outbreaks and saving lives?
- Why did you fail to ensure that all ICE detention centers, including privately-run prisons, county jails, and federal facilities employ basic hygiene and sanitary measures before the COVID crisis swept across the U.S.?
- Why have you continued to transfer and deport detainees during this crisis, including those who have COVID-19, spreading the virus throughout the U.S. and world?
Scheduled to participate in the forum are House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Subcommittee Chair Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), J. Louis Correa (D-CA), Sylvia R. Garcia (D-TX), Joe Neguse (D-CO), Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-FL), Veronica Escobar (D-TX), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), and Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA); Heidi Altman, Director of Policy, National Immigrant Justice Center; Ostian Johannes Favi, formerly in ICE custody; and Claudia Robles, a medical assistant whose husband is currently detained in an ICE detention facility.
“Scriptures call our communities of faith to ‘Love one another….for God is love.’ Deporting children and adults without adequate health protections, spreading COVID-19 to environments ill-equipped to handle the pandemic, and returning families to conditions from which they had fled are the opposite of love. Our nation can do so much better than such reckless behavior. We must instead engage health and moral values that protect our whole society by releasing migrants to family members rather than deporting them, and immediately halting flights that are spreading disease to the world,” said Rev. Dr. Sharon Stanley-Rea, Director, Disciples Refugee & Immigration Ministries.
Rev. John L. McCullough, President and CEO of Church World Service, said: “Our position is clear. Keeping immigrants and asylum seekers in unsafe, unsanitary, and dehumanizing detention centers all but guarantees the further spread of COVID-19. We call on members of Congress to put an end to immigrant detention and halt deportations, especially during this global health crisis. It is past time that our elected officials conduct rigorous oversight into ICE’s refusal to uphold basic standards of human dignity and public health. We are stronger and healthier when we show compassion to our neighbors; that has never been more true than in times of crisis.”
For more, see:
- IIC statement on immigration policy in the time of COVID-19: http://bit.ly/IICCOVID19
- Letter from 224 faith-based organizations and over 1,000 leaders in forty-six states plus DC: https://bit.ly/FaithCOVIDLetterApr
The Interfaith Immigration Coalition is made up of 55 national, faith-based organizations brought together across many theological traditions with a common call to seek just policies that lift up the God-given dignity of every individual. In partnership, we work to protect the rights, dignity, and safety of all refugees and migrants.
Follow us on Twitter @interfaithimm
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