By Alyssa Aquino

Law360 (May 27, 2021, 5:19 PM EDT) -- The American Civil Liberties Union pressed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday to immediately vaccinate the over 22,000 people in immigration detention, slamming the agency's vaccination efforts as a "widespread failure" that endangers the lives of people in its custody.

ICE's detention facilities have recorded COVID-19 positivity rates five times greater than federal prisons and 20 times greater than the general U.S. population, the ACLU said. But while ICE detainees contract the virus at higher rates, the agency has "no clear plan" to ensure their vaccination, the ACLU wrote in a letter to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and acting ICE Director Tae Johnson.

"This is unacceptable and unconscionable, especially at a time where there is ample vaccine availability," Eunice Cho, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU's National Prison Project, said in a statement accompanying the letter. "Our government can and must ensure all detained people have access to the vaccines, and quickly."

When reached for comment, ICE said that local and state health agencies are responsible for allocating vaccine doses for ICE detainees. 

"DHS's Chief Medical Officer is rapidly working on scaling our own internal capability to vaccinate detainees in our care across the country," the agency said. 

Although more than 60% of adults nationwide have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, less than 7% of immigrant detainees have received a shot, according to the letter.

The ACLU attributed the low figure to ICE's decision to have every detention center secure its own vaccine supplies through local and state governments, pointing out that local officials have on several occasions publicly said the federal government bore the burden of vaccinating ICE detainees. 

In contrast, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which is working directly with the federal government to obtain vaccines, has already offered vaccines to every prisoner, the ACLU said.

The ACLU called on ICE to directly supply each detention center with enough doses to vaccinate all detainees and staff. The agency must also ensure that detainees who refuse the vaccine have later opportunities to be vaccinated and that it guarantee second vaccine doses for anyone released or transferred after the first dose, the ACLU demanded.

Immigrant detainees and advocacy groups have been especially vocal about ICE detention throughout the coronavirus pandemic, saying the close quarters have turned the facilities into virus hot spots.

Scores of detainees have taken their complaints to the federal courts and petitioned judges to order their release or at least to direct ICE to bolster its COVID-19 prevention measures. In one California case, U.S. District Judge Jesus Bernal ordered ICE to release immigrant detainees at high risk of contracting COVID-19. He later appointed a special master, former federal Judge Patrick J. Walsh, to monitor ICE's compliance and report on his findings.

A week ago, Walsh reported that detention facilities were experiencing "an unprecedented surge" in COVID-19 cases. Within the first 20 days of May, detention facilities reported 2,350 new infections, he said, recommending that ICE be ordered to vaccinate especially vulnerable detainees.

"The fact that the federal government has not adopted a plan to ensure that they are vaccinated runs counter to the science," he said. "It defies common sense given the fact that the United States has a surplus of vaccines and, in fact, plans to export 80 million doses this summer."

--Editing by Jill Coffey.

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