WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th December, 2021) The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) needs to begin providing COVID-19 booster injections to more than 21,000 migrants now held in immigration detention centers, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday.
Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Immigration and Customs (ICE) detention centers have become places where infection rates are 20 times higher than in the general public, with more than 31,400 people in detention testing positive to date, the letter said.
"It appears that ICE has no plan for detention facilities to provide booster shots," attorney for the ACLU National Prison Project Eunice Cho said in a press release. "This is yet another example of ICE's cavalier approach to the health and safety of people in detention."
The letter also criticized ICE for relying on the single-shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, which has the lowest efficacy of all available inoculations and requires a booster after just two months to ensure protection.
In addition to the letter, the ACLU and seven of its affiliates also filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and local public records act requests regarding the provision of COVID-19 vaccine boosters in 30 facilities with the largest incidence of COVID-19 outbreaks nationwide.
