Agencies across the country have recommended social distancing, and some cities have implemented shelter in place or “stay at home” orders, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is still ramping up its detention of undocumented immigrants.
How? By requesting 45,000 N95 surgical masks from manufacturers to protect themselves — the same masks that doctors and nurses who are treating COVID-19 patients are having a hard time getting their hands on.
According to ICE’s “Guidance on COVID-19,” agents are going to “continue daily enforcement operations to make criminal and civil arrests, prioritizing individuals who threaten our national security and public safety.”
We would argue that the biggest present threat to public safety would be ICE agents, not undocumented immigrants.
In early March, The New York Times reported that ICE agents were going to "flood the streets," specifically targeting sanctuary cities whose local police have elected not to cooperate with ICE.
While North Carolina does not have any sanctuary cities, it does have sanctuary counties, and Orange County is one of them. This leaves room for concern that the Triangle area, which is experiencing a growing number of coronavirus cases, could be a potential target for ICE operations.
Cramming people into detention centers presents an obvious health concern. One person has already tested positive for COVID-19 in an ICE detention facility. On top of this, in 2019 the Department of Homeland Security reported that medical care at ICE detention facilities was "inadequate."
Worse still, visitation to ICE detention centers has been prohibited in order to protect against the spread of the virus, but its agents are still patrolling in an effort to fill them up.
If you don’t think that the presence of ICE agents in your area should concern you, you might want to think again.
