ICE detention centers are disproportionally located in sparsely populated areas with minimal ability to handle exploding health problems and the practice of constantly moving people among facilities is putting detainees and one town after another at risk
Jack Herrera is an independent reporter covering immigration and human rights. Follow him on TwitterWhen Dan Gibson, a local pastor and bed-and-breakfast owner, kicked off his current mayoral campaign in Natchez, he ran as a community man—someone with connections, someone who knows people. Natchez, a small town of 15,000 set on a bend of the Mississippi River, is the kind of place where news travels fast, and, in late March, Gibson’s phone began ringing nonstop.
Natchez had been taking the Covid-19 threat seriously. On March 24, the town’s current mayor, Darryl Grennell, a Democrat who is not running for reelection and did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this story, had issued a stay-at-home order.
A common sentiment was: “If we’re under a shelter-in-place order,” Gibson, who is a Democrat, told us, referring both to the Mississippi governor’s directive since the beginning of April and Natchez’s own, put in place 10 days earlier, “that should apply for detained populations as well.” The actual numbers are likely much higher. ICE only tests small numbers of people with serious symptoms, so “by the time you have about 10 confirmed cases in a detention center, you already have an outbreak,” says Mary-Katherine Smith McNatt, a professor of public health at A.T. Still University of Health Sciences who has studied outbreaks in ICE detention centers. As of May 4,
in these sparsely populated areas, with minimal ability to handle exploding health problems, and ICE’s practice of constantly moving people among crowded facilities is putting not only detainees but also one town after another at risk. A pedestrian crosses a street around the town square last November in Lumpkin, Ga. There are no hotels and many businesses in the downtown area are shuttered. | AP Photo/David Goldmanfor Covid-19 in late March. By April 28, that number had grown to 43, CoreCivic spokesperson Ryan Gustin said.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Ode to the shopping mallA weary sense of inevitability about legacy retail’s demise should not obscure how traumatic a development it is
Read more »
Coronavirus flares as states and countries ease social distancing guidelinesCases springing up in California, South Korea and elsewhere point to the resilience of the virus
Read more »
Virus delay, early ice melt challenge Arctic science missionDozens of scientists are sitting in quarantine, waiting for permission to sail forth and capture a crucial moment in the polar calendar that’s essential to their year-long Arctic research mission.
Read more »
For Asian Americans, Racism Is as Threatening as the Virus'As Asian Americans, we are dealing with dueling fears—fear of the virus itself and fear of xenophobia, a pandemic just as scary as the virus. I have lost count of how many times I’ve been asked if I have the coronavirus.' kellyyanghk writes:
Read more »
Musk threatens to exit California over virus restrictionsTesla CEO Elon Musk is threatening to pull the company’s factory and headquarters out of California in an escalating spat with local officials over reopening an electric vehicle plant.
Read more »
Musk threatens removing Tesla from California over virus restrictionsTesla CEO Elon Musk threatened to pull the company’s factory and headquarters out of California in an escalating spat with local officials who have stopped the company from reopening its electric vehicle factory.
Read more »