News
04.02.2020

VIDEO: COVID-19 Hits Detention

As the entire world adjusts to a new reality where we “shelter in place” in order to avoid contracting a potentially lethal virus, approximately 37,000 immigrants are locked up in detention centers without that luxury. Trapped in cages without access to life-saving critical care and often without vital tools to fight the virus, detained immigrants are on the verge of suffering a totally preventable mass tragedy, the likes of which we have never seen on U.S. soil.

On Thursday, April 2 at 1p PST / 3p CST / 4p EST, RAICES CEO / President Jonathan Ryan live streamed a special session to alert the public to the imminent tragedy that will unfold now that COVID-19 has begun to hit detention centers across the United States.

Featured guests:

Cristian Sanchez, a RAICES attorney who represents immigrants detained at the South Texas ICE Processing Center, a detention center known as Pearsall.

Alexa Wharton-Smith, an infectious disease expert who is working on the COVID-19 response with The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.