Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Castro Statement on First Reported COVID-19 Related Death in ICE Custody

SAN ANTONIO — Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), issued the following statement after the first reported coronavirus-related death in immigration custody.

"CHC Members send our condolences to the family and loved ones of the person who had tested positive for COVID-19 and later died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody after being hospitalized from Otay Mesa Detention Center in California. While ICE has yet to confirm the death and all the details are still pending, it's nevertheless evident that this tragedy is exactly what lawmakers, doctors and public health experts have been working to avoid.

"For months, we have warned that ICE detention centers were a tinder box waiting to ignite with a COVID-19 outbreak and people would die if we did not do everything in our power to mitigate the spread of the disease by swiftly and safely reducing the number of people held in ICE detention. So far, ICE has only tested less than 5-percent of people detained and about 50-percent have tested positive for the coronavirus, including at least 132 individuals who were located at Otay Mesa.

"At a bare minimum, ICE should be releasing vulnerable people with underlying conditions, older migrants, and pregnant women to reduce overall detention numbers. Let's not forget that before the Trump administration, thousands of people detained right now would be safely awaiting due process with family members rather than imprisoned in detention centers — Trump's anti-immigrant agenda is intended to inflict cruelty, and this is the result.

"This is the first reported death in ICE custody due to the coronavirus, but the 11th migrant to die in U.S. government custody this fiscal year. This loss of life could have been prevented, and sadly will not be the last without urgent action. This vulnerable population deserves to be protected from COVID-19."

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The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), founded in December 1976, is organized as a Congressional Member organization, governed under the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives. The CHC is dedicated to voicing and advancing, through the legislative process, issues affecting Hispanics in the United States, Puerto Rico and U.S. Territories.