More than 100 detainees at the Aurora immigration detention center have tested positive for COVID-19, with cases increasing 64% since the end of September.
The U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement website showed 120 detainees have tested positive since March, and 31 are currently isolated to prevent the virus from spreading.
ICE also reported two of its Aurora employees tested positive, but didn’t include employees of GEO Group, which is contracted to run the facility. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has reported 22 combined staff cases, and Rep. Jason Crow’s office has tracked 28.
The first cases among detainees weren’t reported until late May, and only a handful of new cases were reported most weeks, according to ICE data compiled by Crow’s office. Two significant exceptions were the week ending Sept. 30, when 22 detainees tested positive, and the week of Oct. 21, when 34 did.
ICE doesn’t release how cases were brought in from other facilities or the community, and how many people were infected at the Aurora detention center or who arrived already carrying the virus.
Martin Suarez, a detainee who was transported to the ICE facility on Sept. 24 after completing his sentence at the Englewood Federal Correctional Institution, told The Denver Post in an interview that detainees have received only one surgical mask per week. Surgical masks are made of paper, and not intended for repeated use. He said he wasn’t told the results of his COVID-19 test, so he assumed he had a cold until he started feeling short of breath and had to hospitalized.
“I just ordered some Tylenol from the commissary and kept doing my thing,” he said.
A spokesman for GEO Group, which runs the Aurora detention facility, said they “strongly reject” Suarez’s description of conditions, and provide detainees at least three masks per week. All detainees are told their test results, and those who test positive are quarantined, he said.
The facility also has changed some procedures for allow for social distancing, and frequently disinfects “high-contact” areas, the GEO spokesman said.
“We take our responsibility to ensure the health and safety of all those in our care and our employees with the utmost seriousness, and we will continue to work with the federal government and local health officials to implement best practices for the prevention, assessment and management of COVID-19,” he said.
An ICE spokeswoman said she couldn’t comment on specific allegations, but the Aurora facility was one of the first to voluntarily test for the virus.
Suarez said detainees on his pod are now kept in their cells except for showers and brief phone calls, to try to reduce the virus’ spread. He believes he contracted the virus from his cellmate, who was showing mild symptoms when he arrived from another facility in late September.
He estimated 16 of the 24 detainees on his pod had tested positive since the start of October.
“They’re leaving people who are negative with people who are positive and they’re not moving them,” he said. “That’s why it’s out of control.”
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