Pandemic response
Immigrants receive first dose after outbreak hits detention facility
Amid outbreak, Batavia ICE detainees among first to get vaccine.
Nine detainees at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Batavia who received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday appear to be among the first immigrants held in Ice-run facilities to get the vaccine.
The news comes a month and a half after a COVID-19 outbreak hit the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility. In the past month, 119 of the 187 detainees have contracted COVID-19, according to court documents. ICE’S website says there are 63 active positive cases at the facility. At the start of the outbreak, the New York Civil Liberties Union and Prisoner Legal Services of New York sued the facility and ICE over providing vaccines to 85 detained immigrants who are medically at-risk.
“Currently, it seems that nobody is taking responsibility for vaccinating both people who are incarcerated there and the people who work there, which is a huge problem because people in congregate settings like detention centers are especially vulnerable to virus outbreaks,” Amy Belsher, a staff attorney with NYCLU, said at the time.
In near-weekly court conferences, ICE sought to downplay its responsibility to vaccinate detainees, arguing that the petitioners should instead sue New York or the Centers for Disease Control over vaccine supply.
“There is the direct duty that state custodians have for detainees in their custody,” said John Peng, an Immigrant Justice Corps fellow with Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York. “Our clients are people in a federal detention facility. It’s the federal agency here — ICE — that has control over the people in their charge.”
ICE detainees being held at state prisons and local jails have been able to receive the vaccine, as the state opened up eligibility to the populations in early February. In court hearings, ICE has repeatedly said it has not been able to get access to vaccine doses despite calls to the federal government — although other federal agencies have been able to secure vaccines for incarcerated individuals.
Ultimately, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo ordered NYCLU and PLSNY to attempt making vaccine appointments for the detained immigrants themselves, and said ICE would be responsible to transport them to secured appointments.
The first of those appointments were completed Tuesday, according to court documents, with nine of the 85 vulnerable detainees getting the first dose of their vaccine. Another three are expected to be vaccinated soon, ICE’S representatives wrote.
These appear to be the first immigrants in the country who are detained in Ice-run facilities to obtain the COVID-19 vaccine. A Business Insider investigation last month found ICE had no plans to supply their facilities with vaccines. Across the nation, lawyers and advocacy groups have been suing ICE over its lack of a plan to provide vaccines to detainees, and there have been no other reported vaccinations to date.