Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Detainee Dies In ICE Facility Where Advocates Say Healthy, Sick Immigrants Are Living Together
The Wall Street Journal: Immigrant Detainee Becomes First Covid-19 Casualty In ICE Facility
A 57-year-old man became the first person to die from Covid-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, according to people familiar with the matter. Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejia was born in El Salvador but spent most of his life in the U.S. He was taken into ICE custody about four months ago, said Alex Mensing, an organizer with Pueblo Sin Fronteras, an immigrant-rights organization in Oakland, Calif. (Hackman, 5/6)
The Washington Post: ICE Detainee In California Is First In U.S. Immigration Custody To Die Of Coronavirus Disease
ICE officials did not respond to a request for comment about the fatality late Wednesday. The detainee who died Wednesday was identified by his sister as Carlos Escobedo Mejia. Mejia came to the United States decades ago with his family after war broke out in his home country of El Salvador. ICE agents arrested him in January and authorities placed in him in the Otay Mesa facility. (Hernandez, 5/6)
Los Angeles Times: San Diego Detainee Is First In ICE Custody To Die Of COVID-19
As of Tuesday afternoon, 202 people in custody there had tested positive — 136 Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees and 66 U.S. Marshals Service inmates — according to facility records obtained by the San Diego Union-Tribune. Detainees have complained that the facility was not adequately protecting them from the coronavirus. Erik Mercado said he met Escobar Mejia in segregated housing — also known as solitary confinement — when Escobar Mejia was brought in for participating in a hunger strike over the facility’s conditions. (Morrissey, 5/6)
