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Individuals’ experiences in U.S. immigration detention during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic: major challenges and public health implications
BACKGROUND: Individuals held in carceral settings were significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, limited research exists of the direct experiences of individuals detained by the United States (U.S.) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This study illustrates the major challenge...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9936455/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36800031 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40352-023-00211-2 |
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author | Lee, Caroline H. Uppal, Nishant Erfani, Parsa Sandoval, Raquel Sofia Hampton, Kathryn Mishori, Ranit Peeler, Katherine R. |
author_facet | Lee, Caroline H. Uppal, Nishant Erfani, Parsa Sandoval, Raquel Sofia Hampton, Kathryn Mishori, Ranit Peeler, Katherine R. |
author_sort | Lee, Caroline H. |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Individuals held in carceral settings were significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, limited research exists of the direct experiences of individuals detained by the United States (U.S.) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This study illustrates the major challenges described by individuals held in ICE’s immigration detention centers during the initial spread of COVID-19. METHODS: We interviewed 50 individuals who were released from ICE detention between March 15, 2020 until August 31, 2020. Participants were recruited through immigration attorneys. Responses to a semi-structured interview were documented. Quotes from these interviews were thematically analyzed. RESULTS: Study participants were detained in 22 different ICE detention centers, which were located across 12 states, in both county (41%) and privately-contracted facilities (59%). The major themes that emerged from interviews included inadequate protections against COVID-19, denial of physical and mental healthcare, and experiences of retaliation in response to self-advocacy. These issues perpetuated emotions of fear, distrust, and helplessness in individuals in immigration detention centers. CONCLUSIONS: This study represents the largest analysis of experiences of ICE-detained immigrants during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure the rights to health and wellbeing for this population, further actions should include improving public health conditions, protecting against human rights violations, addressing barriers to healthcare access, ensuring transparency about conditions in detention centers, and moving toward decarceration. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40352-023-00211-2. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9936455 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Springer Berlin Heidelberg |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-99364552023-02-17 Individuals’ experiences in U.S. immigration detention during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic: major challenges and public health implications Lee, Caroline H. Uppal, Nishant Erfani, Parsa Sandoval, Raquel Sofia Hampton, Kathryn Mishori, Ranit Peeler, Katherine R. Health Justice Research Article BACKGROUND: Individuals held in carceral settings were significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, limited research exists of the direct experiences of individuals detained by the United States (U.S.) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This study illustrates the major challenges described by individuals held in ICE’s immigration detention centers during the initial spread of COVID-19. METHODS: We interviewed 50 individuals who were released from ICE detention between March 15, 2020 until August 31, 2020. Participants were recruited through immigration attorneys. Responses to a semi-structured interview were documented. Quotes from these interviews were thematically analyzed. RESULTS: Study participants were detained in 22 different ICE detention centers, which were located across 12 states, in both county (41%) and privately-contracted facilities (59%). The major themes that emerged from interviews included inadequate protections against COVID-19, denial of physical and mental healthcare, and experiences of retaliation in response to self-advocacy. These issues perpetuated emotions of fear, distrust, and helplessness in individuals in immigration detention centers. CONCLUSIONS: This study represents the largest analysis of experiences of ICE-detained immigrants during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure the rights to health and wellbeing for this population, further actions should include improving public health conditions, protecting against human rights violations, addressing barriers to healthcare access, ensuring transparency about conditions in detention centers, and moving toward decarceration. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40352-023-00211-2. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2023-02-17 /pmc/articles/PMC9936455/ /pubmed/36800031 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40352-023-00211-2 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Lee, Caroline H. Uppal, Nishant Erfani, Parsa Sandoval, Raquel Sofia Hampton, Kathryn Mishori, Ranit Peeler, Katherine R. Individuals’ experiences in U.S. immigration detention during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic: major challenges and public health implications |
title | Individuals’ experiences in U.S. immigration detention during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic: major challenges and public health implications |
title_full | Individuals’ experiences in U.S. immigration detention during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic: major challenges and public health implications |
title_fullStr | Individuals’ experiences in U.S. immigration detention during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic: major challenges and public health implications |
title_full_unstemmed | Individuals’ experiences in U.S. immigration detention during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic: major challenges and public health implications |
title_short | Individuals’ experiences in U.S. immigration detention during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic: major challenges and public health implications |
title_sort | individuals’ experiences in u.s. immigration detention during the early period of the covid-19 pandemic: major challenges and public health implications |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9936455/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36800031 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40352-023-00211-2 |
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