“You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”
—Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama, a senior advisor to President Bill Clinton
Notice that they didn’t ask for all prisoners to be released.
Either they think that US citizens who are in prison are immune to COVID-19, or they only care about releasing illegal immigrants.
SEATTLE — Immigrant rights groups on Monday sued the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to force the release of detainees at its Washington state jail who are at high risk from the coronavirus.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Seattle by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Washington, and the Northwest Immigrant Rights
Project on behalf of people detained at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many detainees at ICE’s 1,575-bed Northwest Tacoma facility might be considered high-risk. Health officials say among those particularly susceptible to COVID-19 are people older than 60, pregnant, or who have underlying conditions such as a weakened immune system or heart or lung disease. Those in detention are especially vulnerable to contagious outbreaks.
“These are not normal circumstances, and the heightened risk of serious harm to people in detention from COVID-19 is clear,” Eunice Cho, a senior staff attorney at the ACUL’s National Prison Project, said in a statement.