Sharing Covid Vax Facts Inside ICE Detention, One Detainee at a Time
The sounds of wailing ambulances, horns and frantic traffic filtered through Dr. Daniel Turner Lloveras' home office in downtown Los Angeles as he settled into a brown leather sofa to answer a call . KCRW Logo This story was also published on KCRW. be republished for free. On the other end of the line, staring at a mint green wall inside a plexiglass phone booth with little privacy, sat Pedro Figueroa, 33, a detainee at the US Immigration Detention Center and customs at Mesa Verde in Bakersfield, California. "Is it mandatory to get the callback?" Figueroa asked in Spanish. “And why do I need it?TurnerLloveras, who specializes in internal medicine, answers questions like these once a week as a volunteer doctor for the Covid19 Vaccine Education and Empowerment in Detention, or VEED, program, a collaboration between the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice and the Latino Coalition Against COVID19, an organization he co-founded. They launched the program last April to provide vaccine education to immigrants who have been arrested for being in the United States without proper papers and are awaiting a hearing or deportation. Licensed medical service providers volunteer to speak on the phone with immigrants housed at ICE facilities. Conversations last five minutes to half an hour, and volunteers cover a two-hour shift once a week. "On average I will speak to four people. Most calls are in Spanish, around 80%," said Turner Lloveras, who is fluent in Spanish. "But it varies. One day there was no Spanish, and they were English and Mandarin. I used my phone's real-time audio translation, and it worked great.April Newman, VEED program manager, said providers are not pressuring anyone to get vaccinated. "It's really every individual's choice," he said. "But we want to make sure they are equipped and equipped with valid and accessible information. EMAIL SUBSCRIPTION Subscribe to the free weekly edition of KHN. Your Email Address Your ICE email address has seven detention centers in California, six of which are operated by In the two years since the pandemic took hold, covid outbreaks have plagued inmates in recurring waves, wiping out nearly every facility in the As of March 14, ICE had recorded more than 2,000 cases of covid infection and one covid-related death at its California facility, according to agency data.Nationally, ICE has recorded more than 40,000 cases including detainees and 11 deaths. California facilities have been the target of lawsuits for allegedly negligent efforts to prevent and contain covid outbreaks. The Mesa Verde facility, where Figueroa is being held, has been the subject of a class action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups for allegedly overcrowded and unsanitary conditions and failure to follow safety protocols. recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. . Government documents uncovered in the case revealed that at one point Mesa Verde officials deliberately restricted covid testing to avoid having to isolate positive inmates. Under an agreement reached in January, immigration officials agreed to abide by numerous covid-related protections for the next three years, including strict limits on the population in detention to allow for adequate distancing and testing. regular. In addition, hundreds of immigrants who have been released due to their demented health People particularly vulnerable to covid cannot be returned to detention unless they pose a risk to public safety. The agreement includes new protocols for the release of vaccines, including the requirement for ICE and GEO Group, the private prison contractor that operates Mesa Verde, to offer covid vaccines to inmates during the quarantine period of 14 days after detention and to provide consistent booster doses. with guidance from the CDC. If an inmate initially refuses vaccination but later changes his mind, the institution must administer a vaccine upon his request. should not engage in litigation to ensure that ICE provides public health-informed vaccine education and timely administration of vaccines and boosters to those in custody. These are absolutely essential steps to protect those in custody from the ongoing threat of covid19," said Bree Bernwanger, senior counsel for the San Francisco Bay Area Civil Rights Defenders Committee, one of the groups suing.As of Feb. 21, nearly 34,000 inmates in U. Detention Centers had refused vaccination, according to data provided by ICE. During the same period, more than 53,000 received one. Turner Lloveras said the big hurdle is the lack of trusted messengers. "When someone doesn't trust the people offering the vaccine," he said, "a lot of people will turn it down. According to ICE's covid protocols, information about the vaccine is provided during the socket.
