HOUSTON – More people will die of the coronavirus in U.S. immigration custody unless the Trump administration rapidly improves conditions and releases more detainees, lawyers and advocates warned Thursday, following the first confirmed virus-related death of a detainee.
A complaint sent to the Department of Homeland Security includes the stories of 17 people who allege they have been denied release despite in some cases having medical conditions putting them at higher risk of infection.
They include a man in remission from a form of cancer known as follicular lymphoma and a woman with pre-diabetes. Carlos Ernesto Escobar, a 57-year-old man from El Salvador, died Wednesday at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, which was holding