Immigrant Detention and COVID-19: How a Pandemic Exploited and Spread through the US Immigrant Detention System
This report reviews US detention developments from March 1 to August 1, 2020, a period when COVID-19 established itself and spread through the sprawling US detention system and beyond it. The report – which CMS updated regularly during this period – documents ICE’s fatally flawed response to this crisis, paying particular attention to the role of the private corporations that largely operate this system. It explores how the pandemic exploited and exacerbated longstanding problems in this system, such as its privatization, prison-like facilities, correctional standards, lack of transparency, and perverse financial incentives.
Kerwin, D. (2020, August). Immigrant detention and COVID-19: How a pandemic exploited and spread through the US immigrant detention system. Center for Immigration Studies. https://cmsny.org/publications/immigrant-detention-covid/