Immigration detention: ICE efforts to address COVID-19 in detention facilities : report to Congressional committees
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Contributor(s):
- United States. Government Accountability Office. issuing body. United States. Congress. issuing body.
- Publication:
- Washington, DC : United States Government Accountability Office, June 2021
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Communicable Disease Control -- legislation & jurisprudence COVID-19 -- prevention & control Government Regulation Jails -- standards Undocumented Immigrants -- legislation & jurisprudence United States United States. Department of Homeland Security
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Why GAO did this study. Detention facilities can present a challenging environment to manage the risk of transmission of infectious diseases, including COVID-19. ICE, within the Department of Homeland Security, is the lead federal agency responsible for providing safe, secure, and humane confinement for detained individuals of foreign nationality while they wait for resolution of their immigration cases, or removal from the United States. As of March 2021, ICE confirmed over 10,000 cases of COVID-19 among detainees within its detention facilities nationwide and recorded eight deaths. This report examines: (1) ICE’s policies and procedures for responding to COVID-19 in immigration detention facilities and how they were implemented at select facilities; (2) ICE’s mechanisms for conducting oversight of COVID-19 related health and safety measures; and (3) ICE’s data on COVID-19 cases and identified high-risk health factors among detainees. GAO interviewed officials in ICE headquarters and from a nongeneralizable sample of six ICE detention facilities selected on the basis of geographic location, facility type, and average population. GAO reviewed ICE’s Pandemic Response Requirements for detention facilities and oversight mechanisms, and analyzed ICE data on COVID-19 cases and high-risk detainees in its custody between January 2020 and March 2021.
- Copyright:
- The National Library of Medicine believes this item to be in the public domain. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (ii, 31 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918317486806676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918317486806676