By Amanda James

Law360 (May 15, 2020, 10:29 PM EDT) -- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement isn't doing enough to stop the spread of COVID-19 in immigration detention centers, two House Oversight Committee leaders said in a letter to the agency, citing a medically vulnerable detainee's death from the virus after ICE refused to release him.

In a letter addressed to ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Thursday, the two lawmakers said ICE "effectively sentenced" the detainee to death by not releasing him when it was known to suffer from diabetes and hypertension and therefore was at high risk for complications from COVID-19.

Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Subcommittee Chairman Jamie Raskin, D-Md., also said ICE has misled the public about how it is handling the crisis, and they asked for 11,000 nonviolent detainees to be released.

"At each step of the way, the agency has waited rather than acted, prioritizing continued detention of thousands of nonviolent detainees regardless of the life-and-death consequences for immigrants, employees, contractors or their families," Maloney and Raskin wrote.

The lawmakers demanded that ICE give a briefing and documentation by May 22 on the death of Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejia, who died of complications from COVID-19 while in custody.

"ICE refused to release him, reportedly based on criminal convictions from three decades ago, including a DUI, and a 2012 arrest for possession of a controlled substance, which was later expunged," the committee leaders said.

Mejia is just one example of the dangers detainees are facing, and ICE leaders have lied to Congress about how they're treating those in custody, the two Democrats said.

According to the letter, Matthew Albence, acting director of ICE, told Congress on April 17 that the agency had reviewed medical records for its 32,000 detainees to determine who could be released if they were at high risk for severe complications from the novel coronavirus.

However, later that month, it became clear that Albence had misinformed Congress when ICE leaders told a California federal judge that they didn't have a list of detainees in California who were high-risk individuals, the Democrats said.

ICE's failure to adhere to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommendations for social distancing and quarantining also poses serious risks, the letter said. At a detention facility in California, several women were required to work in the same space as another detainee who had recently tested positive for COVID-19. After a few days, multiple women developed symptoms of the virus. They were  quarantined for only four days instead of the recommended 14, then released back into the general population, the lawmakers said.

And detainees aren't the only ones impacted by ICE's mishandling of the situation, the House members said. Multiple contractors told the committee that their employees who worked in ICE facilities had tested positive, and some have died from COVID-19, the letter said.

As of May 2, 28 employees for a major contractor called CoreCivic were in quarantine and 69 had tested positive, the letter said. In April, two contractors for LaSalle Corrections died from complications related to the virus and their family members alleged they weren't allowed to wear masks at ICE facilities, the lawmakers said.

"Failing to report on contractor employees, including contractor deaths, obscures the true extent of the outbreak in ICE facilities," they said.

The lawmakers requested numbers on how many detainees were tested in each facility and what their test results were, as well as the number of people in ICE custody who are high-risk for complications from the virus. They also want to know the plan for treating COVID-19 detainees if hospitals can't.

The committee leaders demanded to know how ICE is working with state and local governments where detention facilities are located and what kind of rules ICE has given for contractors and jails holding ICE detainees.

The two Democrats previously sent letters to DHS in March and April asking about the department's plans to contain the virus at the detention centers, and while there were government briefings after each letter was sent, the lawmakers said ICE has still not fully responded to their requests.

Representatives for DHS and for the lawmakers did not respond to requests for comment Friday.

--Editing by Aaron Pelc.

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