Recently, the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program (HIRC) joined the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute and Prisoners Legal Services of Massachusetts in submitting a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and local county sheriffs/wardens of the jails that contract with ICE, urging them to release immigrants in ICE custody in light of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. The letter, which was co-signed by dozens of local immigrants rights organizations and legal service providers from across Massachusetts and New England, offers a number of recommendations to these officials to help mitigate the existing health risks that face detainees. These recommendations include releasing detainees, halting immigration enforcement and arrests, testing current detainees for COVID-19, providing proper hygiene supplies in detention centers, and many others. So far, three incarcerated individuals have died of COVID-19 and there are over twenty confirmed cases within the Massachusetts state prison system.
You read read the full letter here.
Image by Yakira Teitel.