News & Media

New Jersey– (Monday, May 11th, 2020) Following the death of Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejia, a 57-year-old man, in ICE custody at Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, CA, people detained in New Jersey and immigrants’ rights advocates are intensifying calls to ICE, CoreCivic, and New Jersey state and county officials to release all detained in jail and ICE facilities immediately. Mr. Escobar Mejia’s early and preventable death from COVID-19 illustrates ICE’s wholesale failure to protect the lives of the men and women whom it is detaining during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. This includes the staff and officers working in these facilities with four Hudson County correctional staff who have died due to the virus and many more who have tested positive.

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