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Big news: Last week, in response to a motion we filed with our partners, a federal court ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to take immediate action to protect the people in its detention centers from COVID-19.

If this sounds familiar, it might be because this isn’t the first time ICE has received such an order. All the way back on April 20, as part of the ongoing Fraihat v. ICE suit, the same court required ICE to promptly revisit custody determinations – the very decisions to keep people in ICE custody in the first place – for every person at heightened risk of contracting COVID-19, regardless of the status of their immigration cases or their custody classification.

ICE’s compliance with that order has been, at best, woefully inadequate – and last week’s decision represents a significant escalation in the battle to get ICE to behave legally, responsibly and humanely. U.S. District Judge Jesus Bernal wrote in his ruling that ICE has fallen “far short” of complying with the April 20 ruling. “[T]he court is gravely concerned that Fraihat custody decisions are a disorganized patchwork of non-responses or perfunctory denials,” Bernal wrote, adding that “more active monitoring of [ICE’s] compliance is needed.”

The court went on to issue several clarifications to the April 20 injunction, including that ICE is obligated to identify and track individuals with risk factors for COVID-19 within five days of their detention and to make timely custody determinations on their behalf, noting that only in rare cases should determination take longer than one week. The order demands that ICE give the presence of a risk factor significant weight in an individual’s custody decision; only in rare cases should a subclass member remain detained. If ICE chooses non-release, a justification is required.

The order also clarified that, in keeping with CDC guidance, ICE must conduct widespread and regular COVID-19 testing, as well as daily screenings for symptoms. The order also suspends almost all transfers between facilities – which have contributed to massive COVID-19 outbreaks inside ICE detention centers – and bans solitary confinement as a quarantine measure, a punitive and inhumane practice that flouts public health recommendations.

ICE has essentially ignored the court’s decision for six months, and there have been real and tragic consequences to that shameful disregard for the lives of the individuals ICE is choosing to detain. More than 6,000 positive cases of COVID-19 have been reported in ICE detention centers, and eight people have died. If ICE had taken its responsibility seriously and complied with the court’s order the first time, those people would likely be alive today.

The SPLC is not alone in this fight. Fraihat v. ICE was filed in August 2019 in partnership with the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center, Disability Rights Advocates, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP. The suit seeks an end to the inhumane and traumatic experience of ICE detention affecting tens of thousands across the country – a goal that acquired a new level of urgency with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic.

ICE’s negligence cannot stand. It’s shameful that almost six months have passed since ICE was ordered to protect the health and safety of the individuals in its custody, with little to show for it. The SPLC and our partners, with the support of people like you, demand that ICE stop making excuses and follow the court’s order, now. Lives hang in the balance.

You can read more about last week’s decision here or learn more about the Fraihat v. ICE lawsuit here.

In solidarity,

The Southern Poverty Law Center