Washington, DC – The Interfaith Immigration Coalition (IIC) mourns the death of Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejia and offers love, prayers, and solidarity to his family members and friends. Mr. Mejia died of COVID-19, which he contracted while detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Otay Mesa Detention Center.
San Diego Union-Tribune spoke with Mr. Mejia’s sisters, Maribel and Rosa, who shared these memories about their brother “Netio”:
She remembered her brother as very kind, someone who helped people, in particular doing everything he could to support their sister Rosa, with whom he lived in the Los Angeles area.
“My brother was a one-of-a-kind person,” Maribel Escobar said.
He was a good person and a good brother, Rosa Escobar said. She says she felt like a second mother to him, especially after their mother died a few years ago.
Pedro Rios, Director of the American Friends Service Committee’s (AFSC) US-Mexico Border Program in San Diego, said:
We are saddened and outraged that a person detained at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego County has died with complications related to COVID-19. For months, advocates have been raising concerns that the detention facility would exacerbate deadly conditions for those it detains. People detained at the facility have held hunger strikes because they were not provided with adequate supplies of face masks or soap, and the nutritional quality of their food has diminished since CoreCivic significantly closed down the kitchen. In response, CoreCivic fired chemical agents at detainees for raising concerns.
We hold ICE and CoreCivic responsible for this preventable death. Our state and federal elected officials need to do more to hold ICE and CoreCivic accountable for this death, for their disgraceful treatment of detainees, and to protect the lives of those unable to physically distance while detained. The only reasonable and humane response at this moment is for everyone detained to be released.
Yesterday, AFSC and HIAS joined the American Immigration Council, American Immigration Lawyers Association, Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services, Inc., Innovation Law Lab, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, Remote Immigrant Assistant Project/CBK Immigration, Santa Fe Dreamers Project, and Southern Poverty Law Center in filing a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security documenting unsanitary conditions and unhygienic practices that facilitated the spread of COVID-19 in ICE detention around the country. Without a substantial change in both conditions and the number of people in detention, up to 100% of the 30,000 people in ICE custody could become infected with the virus within 90 days.
Faith Williams, Associate Director, Government Relations & Advocacy with the National Council of Jewish Women and Co-Chair of the IIC, said: “Devastatingly, Mr. Mejia’s death was entirely preventable and indeed predicted. If he had been released from immigration jail when doctors and advocates began to warn of the impending disaster, due to the lack of social distancing and poor medical and sanitary conditions at Otay Mesa Detention Center, he would be alive today.”
In March, the Interfaith Immigration Coalition issued a statement on immigration that included the following:
The Interfaith Immigration Coalition is concerned about all members of our human family, in the United States and abroad, and the medical prejudice that rations aid to some members of society while others are left to get ill and die. We believe that immigration detention centers should be emptied and individuals allowed to return home to their families, to avoid being trapped in epicenters of disease.
Following that, 224 faith-based organizations and over 1,000 leaders in forty-six states plus DC sent a letter to the Trump administration, Congress, and Governors, again calling for the release of “all detained children and families, given the previous deaths of minors for influenza while in U.S. custody,” and “detained immigrant adults, so that they can stay safe with their families in the U.S. avoid contracting COVID-19.”
The letter concludes: “As we continue to pray and act for justice, we know we must all work together, and ensure that all members of our communities are protected. We appeal to your humanity, as we have a moral obligation to ensure immigrants and asylum seekers are included in solutions during this public health crisis and not left to get ill and die.”
Sadly, these words were not heeded. The U.S. government must act immediately to ensure more individuals in ICE custody, and their families, do not suffer and die.
The Interfaith Immigration Coalition is made up of 55 national, faith-based organizations brought together across many theological traditions with a common call to seek just policies that lift up the God-given dignity of every individual. In partnership, we work to protect the rights, dignity, and safety of all refugees and migrants.
Follow us on Twitter @interfaithimm
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