Government medical advisers urge ICE to expand COVID-19 vaccinations for immigrant detainees
CBSN
Two medical advisers for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) implored the U.S. government on Wednesday to expand COVID-19 vaccination access and other mitigation measures at immigration detention centers, where infections have surged by over 800% in 2022, according to a whistleblower disclosure obtained by CBS News.
In a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Scott Allen and Josiah Rich, two doctors who inspect detention facilities on behalf of the department's civil rights office, denounced the government's "slow and inconsistent" efforts to control the spread of COVID-19 among immigrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a division of DHS.
"In our own inspections of ICE facilities, for example, we have seen and documented inconsistent enforcement of mask use in detention centers, inconsistent testing and surveillance, and a failure to develop facility level infection control plans — all critical measures to control the spread of what we know is a highly transmissible, life-threatening illness," the medical consultants wrote.
