By the time the coronavirus pandemic reached a crisis level in the United States in March, José Velásquez had already spent almost 900 days in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention. A Guatemalan asylum seeker, Velásquez had celebrated his 18th and 19th birthdays behind bars, and, as the pandemic worsened, he worried about making it to his 20th. Over the course of two years in the notorious Adelanto detention center in California, the teenager had developed serious hypertension, a condition that put him at high risk of dying if he caught COVID-19. Fearing for his safety in the cramped conditions of the detention center, his attorneys requested ICE consider paroling him in light of the pandemic. (Velásquez had never been accused of a crime and had legally asked for asylum.) ICE refused, even as prisons and jails across the state released prisoners to prevent outbreaks behind bars.
PCIM on Youtube
Recent Posts
- Vaccine Supply Chains, Texas Freeze February 24, 2021
- What’s On Interior’s To-Do List? A Full Plate of Public Lands Issues—and Trump Rollbacks—for Deb Haaland February 24, 2021
- Demands Grow for Texas to ‘Forgive All Utility Bills’ as Price Gouging by Energy Companies Sparks Outrage February 24, 2021
- Fossil Fuel Shock Doctrine: Naomi Klein on Deadly Deregulation & Why Texas Needs the Green New Deal February 24, 2021
- Pandemic May Have Left 265 Million People With Acute Food Shortages in 2020 February 24, 2021
Categories
Archives
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- June 2018
- October 2017
- October 2016
- September 2015
- December 2014
- September 2014
- April 2014
- October 2013
- February 2013
- December 2011
- September 2011
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- November 2009
- September 2009
- April 2009
- February 2009
- December 2008
- September 2008
- January 2008