ICE confirms the first known COVID-19 death of a detained immigrant

AP Photo/Elliot Spagat

• Carlos Escobar-Mejia, an immigrant from El Salvador who came to the US in 1980, is the first confirmed case of someone dying from COVID-19 while in the custody of US immigration authorities.
• Escobar-Mejia, who had hypertension and diabetes, had been detained since January at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego. The privately run facility has reportedly had over 200 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
• "ICE detention is cruel, unnecessary, and fundamentally unfair," Monika Y. Langarica, immigrants' rights staff attorney at the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties, told Business Insider. "It should have never been a death sentence for Mr. Escobar Mejia."
• The Otay Mesa Detention Center is administered by CoreCivic, a for-profit prison company. "We extend our heartfelt sympathy to this individual's loved ones," the company said in a statement.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Carlos Escobar Mejia was just short of his 58th birthday when he, the youngest of five siblings who fled El Salvador's US-fueled civil war in the 1980s, became the first confirmed case of a person dying of COVID-19 while in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

ICE reported the death in a statement on Thursday.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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