Where ICE reports COVID-19 cases
By Mohamed Al Elew and Patrick Michels | Sept. 10, 2020
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began publishing data on coronavirus cases in its detention centers in late March, soon after the agency reported the first case of COVID-19 among people in its custody.
These numbers provide a window into how the virus is spreading around ICE’s network of nearly 200 detention centers, but they also have serious limitations. For one, ICE doesn’t publicly track how case totals change over time. And while ICE reports how many total tests it has administered nationally, the agency doesn’t report how many tests have been conducted at individual facilities.
Reveal reporters have analyzed snapshots of ICE’s website, which were compiled by researchers at the Vera Institute of Justice. The charts below show how ICE reports of COVID-19 in detention facilities have changed over time.
Mohamed Al Elew can be reached at malelew@revealnews.org, and Patrick Michels can be reached at pmichels@revealnews.org. Follow Michels on Twitter: @PatrickMichels.