ICE detainee’s COVID19 death brings ‘cry for help’
More than 40 immigrants held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center near San Diego are alleging that a recent detainee death of COVID19 was caused by reckless and inhumane conditions, according to a letter begging the governor and other California lawmakers to intervene.
“This is a cry for help,” said detainee Oscar Nevarez, one of 43 immigrants at Otay Mesa who supported the letter after detainee Carlos Escobar Mejia died May 6. “Please allow us to go home on humanitarian ground and fight our cases from our homes with our families where we are safe.”
Advocates from Pueblo Sin Fronteras and Otay Mesa Detention Resistance transcribed the letter, which Nevarez read over the phone from Otay Mesa in an audio recording obtained by The Chronicle. The organizations sent the letter Wednesday to Gov. Gavin Newsom, U.S. Sens. Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein, Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Rep. Juan Vargas, DSan Diego.
Detainees from Otay Mesa sent a similar letter to politicians last month.
Alex Mensing, a program coordinator for Pueblo Sin Fronteras, said the detainees wanted to let elected officials know “there are consequences that have already happened for their inaction.”
“But it’s not just a ‘told you so,’ ” Mensing said. “It’s a cry for help from the people inside who watched this happen and know that this can happen again as long as there are people confined in detention centers.”
Jesse Melgar, a press secretary for Newsom, said the “abuse and negligence” in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities spurred the governor last year to sign AB32, which prohibits forprofit prisons in California, but the health and safety of ICE detainees lies with the Department of Homeland Security.
“They must take action, including thoroughly investigating the circumstances of Mr. Mejia’s death, and work with public health officials to protect their staff and those in federal custody,” Melgar said in a statement.
Sen. Harris called Otay Mesa’s conditions “unacceptable” in a statement.
“Carlos’s death was likely preventable and there needs to be an investigation, and accountability for any wrongdoing,” Harris said. “It is imperative that officials take every step available to put safeguards in place to prevent more illness and loss.”
Vargas and others have previously called on ICE to release all nonviolent detainees as the number of people in federal detention continues to rise.
“It is impossible for ICE to properly social distance and reduce the spread of the virus under their current policies and conditions,” Vargas said this month, after reports of EscobarMejia’s death.
Feinstein, the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, called for an investigation last week into Escobar Mejia’s death. She said in a statement that a federal judge found conditions at Otay Mesa unconstitutional because detainees are at “substantial risk of serious illness or death.”
Escobar Mejia, a 57yearold Salvadoran immigrant who had lived in the U.S for 40 years, died May 6 from COVID19, ICE officials said in a news release. He was the first ICE detainee in the country to die from the illness.
Immigrants detained in the same pod as Escobar Mejia allege he spent several weeks alerting medical staff and correctional officers of his deteriorating condition. But officials ignored his repeated pleas for medical care and did not transfer him out of his pod until he was too sick to move, they said.
“Not until Mr. Escobar was so sick that he could not get up and was laying in his bunk after throwing up in his trash can did they finally decide to move him,” Otay Mesa detainees said in their letter.
But instead of taking him to the hospital for immediate care, ICE authorities transferred him to a pod that housed patients being treated for COVID19, further exposing him to the virus, detainees said.
Escobar Mejia was taken to a Paradise Valley Hospital in National City (San Diego County) on April 24 and died 12 days later.
His death reignited calls to release medically vulnerable immigrants as the virus spreads across detention facilities in the U.S. ICE has 943 confirmed cases among detainees, including 149 at Otay Mesa, according to the agency.
Immigration advocates say the overcrowded, unsanitary conditions in detention facilities and inadequate medical care increase the chances of a mass outbreak.
ICE on Wednesday said it could not comment specifically on Escobar Mejia’s death because of privacy regulations.
“ICE is committed to ensuring the welfare of all those in the agency’s custody, including providing access to necessary and appropriate medical care,” officials said in a statement.
Jose Rivera Martinez, 53, said he was a close friend of Escobar Mejia’s and often shared his food with him, helped him get around in his wheelchair and purchase his commissary. Escobar Mejia’s calls for medical attention were ignored for weeks, he said.
“I’m outraged,” Martinez told The Chronicle during a call Wednesday from Otay Mesa. “We saw with our own eyes the negligence of medical staff.”
Escobar Mejia was often forced to go without insulin for days, he said.
“That’s what motivated me to sign the letter,” Martinez said. “I will sign anything without fear, because what I’ve seen in this place is terrible. I’m very damaged psychologically.”
CoreCivic, the private corporation that operates and manages Otay Mesa, said claims that CoreCivic staff in detention facilities are ignoring the medical needs of detainees are “patently false.”
“Sick calls are processed without delay and anyone who is not well/exhibiting symptoms of COVID19 are immediately referred to medical,” a CoreCivic spokeswoman said in a statement Wednesday.
“Since even before any confirmed cases of COVID19 in our facilities, we have rigorously followed the guidance of local, state and federal health authorities, as well as our government partners. We have responded to this unprecedented situation appropriately, thoroughly and with care for the safety and wellbeing of those entrusted to us and our communities.”