Despite urgent insistence from public health experts, thousands of people in immigration detention facilities are being denied basic protections to combat COVID-19, even access to soap to wash their hands in some instances.

Learn more about the conditions detainees in Texas are facing right now.

Here are some of the first-hand accounts we've heard that confirm a grossly inadequate response to the public health pandemic:

In El Paso, people with visible flu-like symptoms are crammed into roomswith more than 150 other detainees.In the Rio Grande Valley, people are forced to pay for their soap while the global pandemic rages.In Laredo, people have gone more than a week without any access to soap.In most facilities, there is no way for detainees to socially distance.

Public health experts tell us that once an outbreak occurs in detention facilities, it will spread quickly and devastatingly. That's why we're demanding an investigation into facility conditions and that the government act immediately to protect the health and safety of those detained.

Read more: Life-or-Death problems government agencies must solve now.

Sincerely,

ACLU of Texas

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