Detainees in at least 11 units at the Otay Mesa Detention Center have said they are beginning hunger strikes this week over continued concerns about their safety during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to advocates who communicate with them daily.
Otay Mesa, run by private prison company CoreCivic, holds people in immigration custody as well as those who are awaiting trial or sentencing in federal criminal court. It has been a hot spot for the novel coronavirus among U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers.
As of Thursday afternoon, 18 ICE detainees and nine U.S. Marshals Service inmates at the facility had tested positive, according to facility documents obtained by the San Diego Union-Tribune. The virus had spread to at least nine units, comprising nearly half of the facility.
Ten CoreCivic employees and eight medical staffers have also tested positive for the virus, according to the documents. According to ICE’s website, five of the agency’s employees have tested positive as well. It is not clear whether any of the eight medical staffers overlap with the five ICE workers — some of the facility’s medical personnel are ICE employees, and others are contracted through another company.
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