According to ICE’s tally, in addition to the six confirmed cases among detainees, nearly 50 of the agency’s staffers so far have also tested positive. Five work directly in detention facilities in Colorado, Texas, and New Jersey, while there are “44 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among ICE employees not assigned to detention facilities,” the agency’s website said. But remember, this tally is likely far higher because numerous detainees have said that people all around them are sick but haven’t been tested yet.

I’ve noted before that ICE’s media page is littered with press releases boasting about drug raids and immigration arrests—even press releases noting the horrific deaths of people in their custody make sure to point out their criminal record—but when it comes to this pandemic and the crisis growing inside detention facilities, the agency gets much more quiet.

“Monika Sud-Devaraj, an immigration attorney who represents clients at the Arizona facility, learned about the COVID-19 case after a client called to tell her he was in lockdown,” Roll Call continued. “She said a local ICE contact informed her that the affected detainee had recently transferred into the facility and was taken to a hospital for a seemingly unrelated reason. He was tested for COVID-19 while at the medical facility. ICE did not confirm whether this is the same case or a different one.”

ICE is directly endangering the lives of people by refusing to release them when many don’t even have to be detained in the first place. “Gabriel,” the first detainee confirmed to test positive for coronavirus, wasn’t even a target when he was swept up. He said officers in jackets that said “police” were talking to his roommate and, trying to be helpful, he translated for them. But they were really ICE agents, and they detained him too.

“Being locked up in there is very sad,” he told BuzzFeed News following his release from detention. “It’s dusty, it’s dirty, some of the toilets work, but others don’t. It’s really bad.” He worries about the others still there. “I pray to God they will be okay.” Some detainees have started hunger strikes in protest of their ongoing detention. While federal judges have been doing what ICE won’t do by releasing some detained immigrants, freedom is coming far too slowly as the virus is spreading quickly.

ICE detainees “are sitting ducks for this virus,” Congressional Hispanic Caucus chair Joaquin Castro said during a press call this week urging the release of people from ICE custody. "ICE's failure to reduce detention numbers and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 has a real possibility of creating a severe health crisis for detention centers,” Rep. Sylvia Garcia said. "This is a humanitarian crisis that is right on our doorstep," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez cautioned. “A decision to do nothing is a decision to do harm."