Judge Goodman orders ICE to release corona numbers

Well done!

The Herald has the story here:

A federal magistrate judge in Miami has ordered U.S. immigration officials to disclose how many of its detainees and third-party contractors at three South Florida detention centers have tested positive for coronavirus.

The court order was issued Tuesday night following a Miami Herald story that revealed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not consider its contractors ICE “staff,” and that the agency said it had no obligation to include them on its website detailing how many employees at its detention centers nationwide had contracted the virus. The Herald also reported that the agency got around having to disclose that a Miami detainee was sick with COVID-19 because the detainee was technically no longer at the detention center, but rather at a hospital. All three detention centers in South Florida are operated by third-part contractors.

“That isn’t something we have to provide,” the agency said, later noting that ICE’s role isn’t to publish or discuss information about a third party.

The Herald’s reporting was cited in a federal lawsuit filed in Miami federal Court Monday seeking the release of detainees at three South Florida detention centers. As part of the case — filed by immigration advocates against ICE and the U.S. Attorney General— Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman ordered that the government file the previously undisclosed information by Friday.

As of Wednesday morning, ICE says only 21 of its employees have tested positive. However, that does not include third-party contractors that operate at least 217 of its 222 detention centers nationwide.

“The purpose of the declarations is to provide the Court with information, and the information should be comprehensive and not limited by technicalities, such as whether a guard or officer is a government employee or an employee of a third-party contractor or contracting vendor,” Goodman said in his order. “For purposes of gauging the health risk to detainees, it matters little whether a COVID-19-infected guard or officer receives a paycheck from the United States or from Akima (or some other company).”

Akima Global Services is the government contractor that operates ICE’s Krome detention center in Miami-Dade. Last week, the Herald reported that two guards had contracted the virus, and that at least 60 others had been sent home to wait for test results or to quarantine.

In the magistrate judge’s order, Goodman specified that “staff members” is not limited to actual ICE employees or employees of the United States or one of its agencies or departments.

“To the contrary, it is designed to encompass anyone and everyone who works at the three facilities — including, by way of example, employees of third party contractors who provide services and personnel to the detention centers,” he said.

He continued: “Thus, to provide one specific illustration, if a company, such as Akima, provides services or employees at the Krome detention facility, then Akima employees who work as guards (or nurses or counselors or administrative aides or any other position at the detention center) would be included in the term ‘staff members.’ This same definition applies for all three detention centers.”

Goodman told ICE that if the clarification required them to obtain information from its contractors, “then so be it. The point is, I don’t want to be on the short end of the information stick.”