The impact of immigration detention on the health of asylum seekers during the COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 disproportionately affects racial and ethnic minority groups as well as people in jails and immigration detention centers in the United States. Between April and August of 2020, the mean monthly COVID-19 case ratio for ICE detainees was 13.4 times that of the general U.S. population. This study aims to understand the experiences of detained asylum seekers during the pandemic and to provide insight into COVID-19's impact on this population's health. This qualitative study employed first-person, in-depth narratives obtained from 12 asylum seekers, all of whom were detained in immigration detention centers or prisons during the initial surge of the COVID-19 pandemic and were subsequently released. Detained asylum seekers reported inadequate medical care, obstacles to receiving care, an inability to social distance, poor hygiene, restricted movement, and a lack of infection control-- all which increased their risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19 and exacerbated health inequalities brought to the forefront by the pandemic. Advocating for improved disease prevention and screening, prompt access to health care and treatment, cohorting of infectious cases, and community alternatives to detention to decrease the detained immigrant population sizes are crucial to halt communicability of the virus and its subsequent morbidity and mortality in this vulnerable population.