During six months of ICE detention, I saw COVID-19 spread
Last month, I was released from an ICE detention facility in Kern County, where more than half of all detainees have tested positive for COVID-19. My time in detention opened my eyes to just how inhumane the immigration detention system is, how horrible private prisons are, and how important it is for us to stand up and speak out against these injustices.
It showed me why Gov. Gavin Newsom should do all that he can to protect those who are still caged and hold private prison companies accountable for their actions.
My family immigrated here from Bangladesh when I was 6 years old. My parents fled political persecution but did not know how to apply for asylum relief until many years after they arrived. By then, I was no longer living with them and not included in their application.
In 2019, I pleaded no contest to an ammunition charge, related to a traffic stop, and, as a result, I was later picked up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and put into detention. After 25 years of living in California, and even though I am married to a U.S. citizen and have a 9-year-old daughter, I found myself in immigration detention.
Thankfully, with the support of friends, family and my attorney, after six months of living in nightmarish conditions, I was ordered released by a federal judge and reunited with my family.
During my time at the Mesa Verde Detention Facility I witnessed ICE’s callous cruelty toward the immigrants they detain. They kept us locked up and unable to socially distance, despite the fact that they had complete discretion to release us at any time. Not only did they rob us of our freedom, but they did everything they could to silence us when we spoke out.
I also witnessed the blind greed of the GEO Group, the private prison company that operates Mesa Verde for the federal government. GEO’s indifference and the complete lack of oversight has resulted in the spread of COVID-19 to more than half of those detained in Mesa Verde. Their negligent actions have created deadly conditions in this facility, conditions that claimed the life of my friend and fellow detainee Choung Woong Ahn.
Tragically, all of these things were allowed to happen by people who had the power to stop it.
Judge Vince Chhabria, who is presiding over a lawsuit filed with respect to Mesa Verde, recently noted that the ICE and GEO had “lost the right to be trusted” based on their actions in the facility. But why did it take four months for him to come to such an obvious conclusion?
Now that I am free, I call on the state of California to do more to protect those who are being left to die by the Trump administration. This includes recognizing that the state is making the problem worse by transferring individuals from state custody into ICE detention, a policy Gov. Gavin Newsom
could choose to end today if he was truly committed to saving lives.
Newsom could also hold private companies such as GEO accountable for abuses and gross negligence by signing AB 3228, a bill that requires all private prison operators to follow standards of care for health and safety, and allows people who are harmed by these prison operators to seek justice.
California must protect all of its residents. Especially now, we must take immediate and long-overdue steps to protect vulnerable populations in detention.
Only through compassion and cooperation can we get through this pandemic, and only through solidarity and unity can we overcome injustice.
Asif Qazi grew up in the East Bay and is a resident of Vallejo where he lives with his wife and their two daughters. He is a member of Ironworkers Local 378.
California must protect all of its residents. Especially now, we must take immediate and long-overdue steps to protect vulnerable populations in detention. Only through compassion and cooperation can we get through this pandemic, and only through solidarity and unity can we overcome injustice.