‘Release The ICE Detainees’ Myth Based On Flawed Understanding Of Jail Medicine

Since the beginning of the pandemic, open borders advocates have insisted that the United States must release every immigration violator currently in ICE custody. In fact, Documented’s piece is only the latest in a long line of articles and essays implying that the COVID-19 outbreak creates some kind of ethico-legal obligation for the United States to ignore its immigration laws and give any immigration violator who may have a passing risk of exposure to the virus a free run of the United States.

Their basic contention is that it’s unreasonable, some say cruel, to keep foreign nationals in immigration detention – because the close confines and communal living arrangements inherent in a detention setting allegedly increase the risk of becoming infected with COVID-19. And, because detainees can’t leave, they can’t protect themselves through social distancing, self-quarantine, etc. Therefore, the argument goes, continued immigration detention is akin to a death sentence.