ICE Resisted Coronavirus Testing to Avoid Releasing Detainees

ON THE EVENING of July 1, four people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody slept on the floor of the intake room at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Facility in Bakersfield, California. A detainee who arrived with them had tested positive for Covid-19, but there was no room in the detention center — which is run by the private prison company GEO Group — to isolate people exposed to the coronavirus. The next morning, the four people were gone, transferred along with others to another facility.

“Looks like we’re dodging...