Chris Carlson/AP Photo
A guard walks with a detainee in the intake area at the Adelanto Detention Center in California, August 28, 2019.
Elvira, a Cameroonian asylum seeker whose story was first told in the Prospect last month, has spent nearly three years in immigration detention. Although she easily passed her credible-fear screening, her case has languished in immigration court despite her having no criminal history or prior immigration history.
Elvira had a bond hearing scheduled for April 7, but the day before, she received a notice from the judge that not only was her bond denied, but her request for a hearing was denied, too. But at the same time, a federal lawsuit involving Elvira and three other women was making its way through court. On Friday, April 10, the judge issued a temporary restraining order that allowed for her immediate release.
Released from Adelanto Detention Center, a for-profit facility run by GEO Group in California, Elvira is reunited with her family in the U.S. and is now quarantining for 14 days.
According to Robyn Barnard, the attorney with Human Rights First handling the case, numerous asylum seekers detained at Adelanto and other facilities have been winning temporary restraining orders during the pandemic, escaping deteriorating conditions in ICE custody. “They all involved people who were detained at Adelanto and the judge was focusing largely on conditions at the center and how ICE and GEO weren’t taking any steps that could keep the individuals safe in the prison,” Barnard said. This, coupled with the fact that the women in Elvira’s lawsuit have unique medical vulnerabilities should they contract COVID-19, made the judge likely to rule in their favor. Elvira, who has asthma and high blood pressure, also contracted hepatitis A while in detention.
The issue of coronavirus behind bars is a growing worry as fears that contracting the disease, especially for people with underlying medical conditions, can be a death sentence.
“There’s no reason why she had to spend three years in detention,” Barnard said of Elvira. “Every medical expert we’ve had in our case happily verified the link between prolonged detention and decreased physical and mental health. If ICE was following its own guidance, she would have been released and we wouldn’t have had to file in federal court [to force her release.]”
Sylvie Bello, founder of the Cameroon American Council, which has advocated for Elvira’s release, said that Elvira’s case “in particular touched me because that is one of the reasons why I started the [council].” Bello’s father, she said, died from complications of hepatitis. Bello added that while she’s happy for Elvira, she’s sad that there are others who are still at risk in Adelanto and around the country. “COVID-19 has revealed that black people have major underlying factors in health and in immigration that puts us at greater risk for demise,” she added.
The last of the four women involved in the Human Rights First lawsuit was released on Tuesday. Barnard explained that this woman, who is wheelchair-bound, will also be joining family and friends who will be caring for her.
“I feel so grateful to God and everyone who worked tirelessly to see that Elvira has her freedom,” said Carine, one of Elvira’s two sisters who both live in the U.S.
“We’re very focused on the fact that there are others like [Elvira and the group’s three other plaintiffs],” Barnard added. “We want to represent as many as possible.”
The issue of coronavirus behind bars is a growing worry as fears that contracting the disease, especially for people with underlying medical conditions, can be a death sentence. On Monday, Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) announced legislation designed to lower the number of immigrants in detention and curtail enforcement actions that ICE continues to take throughout the pandemic.
ELVIRA ARRIVED in the U.S. after a grueling journey through nearly a dozen countries, after she fled her native Cameroon. Like other southern Cameroonians, she faced persecution and violence if she remained, as the civil conflict between the minority English-speaking regions and majority French-speaking regions intensified.
Barnard explained that Elvira’s fight isn’t exactly over. Human Rights First will continue to litigate the habeas corpus petition on behalf of their four clients, and ICE has said that it intends to re-detain people like Elvira once the threat of COVID-19 has passed. But how ICE will determine this is a mystery, says Barnard, pointing to the struggle epidemiologists have had in answering the same question.
Adelanto does not yet have any confirmed cases of the virus, but the facility does not appear to be conducting tests, and detainees have said that there are people who are showing symptoms. “Based on what people have described to us in terms of the conditions of other detainees and the fact that no one is being tested,” Barnard said, “we don’t know how many people have or have had the virus at this time.”
Around the country, ICE has confirmed 77 cases of COVID-19 among detainees, along with 19 cases among ICE employees at detention centers, and an additional 72 ICE employees who have contracted the virus but who aren’t assigned to detention facilities. In one instance, 37 children tested positive for COVID-19 in Chicago shelters, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. It’s unclear how many people have been tested. ICE immigration facilities and the jails with which ICE contracts for additional beds appear ill-prepared for the spread of the virus.
The results on Friday are part of a larger strategy, Barnard said. Human Rights First has brought another lawsuit in New Jersey on behalf of ten people in two detention centers. Similarly, organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association have taken similar actions on behalf of immigrants.
The court has prioritized the emergency temporary restraining orders, but Barnard thinks that the underlying legal issues still to be resolved may take much longer, given the backlog at immigration courts around the country.
“This is a small portion of the 2,000 people detained at Adelanto, so we’re certainly cognizant of that,” Barnard said, “and thinking through how we can best assist those individuals who are still in the prison and can leverage this success into something broader.”
