The sounds of ambulances, car horns and the hubbub of traffic filtered into Dr. Daniel Turner-Lloveras’ office in a high-rise building in downtown Los Angeles as he settled on his couch to take a call.
At the other end of the line, facing a mint green wall inside an acrylic phone booth with little privacy, sat Pedro Figueroa, 33, detained in the green table center of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service of the United States (ICE), in Bakersfield, California.
“Is it mandatory to have the booster?” Figueroa asked in Spanish. “And why do I need it?”
Turner-Lloveras, an internal medicine specialist, answers these kinds of questions once a week as a volunteer doctor for the Covid-19 Vaccine Education & Empowerment in Detention (VEED) program, a partnership between California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice and Latino Coalition Against COVID-19an organization he co-founded.
The program was launched last April to provide vaccine education to immigrants who have been arrested for being in the country without papers, and who are awaiting a court hearing or deportation.
Doctors offer to speak on the phone with immigrants housed in ICE facilities. Talks last between five minutes and half an hour, and volunteers cover a two-hour shift, once a week.
“I speak, on average, with four people. Most of the calls are in Spanish, around 80%,” said Turner-Lloveras, who is fluent in this language. “But it varies. One day there was no one in Spanish, and it was in English and Mandarin. I used my phone’s real-time audio translation and it worked pretty well.”
April Newman, program manager for VEED, said providers aren’t pressuring anyone to get vaccinated. “It really is the choice of each individual,” she said. “But we want to make sure that they are trained and that they have robust and accessible information.”
ICE has seven detention centers in California, six of them run by private prison companies. In the two years since the pandemic began, Covid outbreaks have hit detainees in recurring waves, sweeping through nearly every facility in the state.
As of March 14, ICE had recorded more than 2,000 cases of COVID infection and one COVID-related death at its California facilities, according to agency details. Nationally, ICE has recorded more than 40,000 cases among detainees, and 11 deaths.
California facilities have been the subject of lawsuits alleging poor efforts to prevent and contain Covid outbreaks. The Mesa Verde facility, where Figueroa is being held, was the subject of a class action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups, which alleged unsanitary and overcrowded conditions, and the failure to adopt safety protocols recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Government documents uncovered in the case revealed that Mesa Verde officials at one point deliberately limited testing for Covid to avoid having to isolate detainees who tested positive.
According an agreement reached in JanuaryImmigration officials have agreed to adhere to numerous Covid-related protections over the next three years, including strict limits on the detainee population to allow for proper distancing, and regular testing.
In addition, hundreds of immigrants who were released because their health made them especially vulnerable to covid cannot be returned to detention unless they pose a risk to public safety.
This agreement includes new protocols for vaccine information, including a requirement that ICE and GEO Group, the private prison contractor that runs Mesa Verde, offer Covid vaccines to detainees during the 14-day quarantine period after they are released. booked into custody, and provide booster doses consistent with CDC guidance.
If a detainee initially refuses vaccination but later changes their mind, the facility must administer the vaccine at that person’s request.
“Litigation should not be necessary to ensure that ICE provides public health education about vaccines and promptly administers doses and boosters to people in custody. These are absolutely critical measures to protect people from the ongoing threat of COVID-19,” said Bree Bernwanger, senior attorney with the San Francisco Bay Area Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, one of the groups that filed the lawsuit. .
As of Feb. 21, nearly 34,000 detainees in detention centers across the country had refused to be vaccinated, according to figures provided by ICE. In the same period, more than 53,000 were vaccinated.
Turner-Lloveras said the big barrier is the lack of reliable couriers. “When someone doesn’t trust the people offering the vaccine,” she said, “a lot of people will turn it down.”
I agree with you ICE covid protocols, vaccine information is provided in multiple languages at the time of admission. Still, Newman, VEED’s program manager, said detainees at some facilities have reported inconsistencies in providing shots, boosters and education.
“Programs like VEED are critical,” said Jackie Gonzalez, policy director for Immigrant Defense Advocates, a group working to abolish detention centers in California. “Because we know that people who are detained do not trust those who detain them, especially when it has been a private corporation that has failed them time and time again on health and safety issues.”
Figueroa, originally from Michoacán, Mexico, has been at the Mesa Verde facility since November awaiting a court date for his deportation case. He said he was brought to the United States without documentation when he was a child and was picked up by ICE after a recent arrest. He refused to discuss the nature of the arrest, saying he had been warned that discussing his case could harm his legal effort to remain in the country.
Already detained, Figueroa said he initially turned down a vaccine because he felt he didn’t have enough information about safety and side effects. He had heard that the Johnson & Johnson had been linked to a rare but life-threatening side effect involving severe blood clots.
“I told the nurse that I heard bad reports about Johnson & Johnson. If I wanted to get vaccinated with one of the others, could I have more information?” Figueroa recalled. “His response from her was, ‘We’re offering J&J. Do you want her or not?’ So I didn’t get it.”
Figueroa eventually received the Pfizer vaccine. But she had questions about booster doses and other COVID-related topics. He said that Turner-Lloveras did not treat him like a detainee.
“I feel like he treated me like just another person who called for information,” Figueroa said. “I feel more comfortable receiving medical information from someone outside, so I can make these decisions.”
The pilot program has nearly 20 doctors on call across the country. For now, they are providing services at four California detention centers where detainees have specifically requested outside medical advice, and hope to expand nationally.
The call between Turner-Lloveras and Figueroa lasted about 18 minutes. Figueroa asked about the risks of people mixing different brands of vaccines from the initial doses to the booster, as well as the possibility of false negative test results.
After the conversation, Figueroa decided to receive the booster when he becomes eligible in three months. “The hope is that I will not be here, but if I am, I will get it to protect myself and others.”
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.
USE OUR CONTENT
This story can be republished for free (details).
–
