Coreas v. Bounds

451 F.Supp.3d 407

Mauricio COREAS and Angel Guzman Cedillo, Petitioners,

v.Donna BOUNDS, in her official capacity as Warden, Worcester County Detention Center, Jack Kavanaugh, in his official capacity as Director, Howard County Detention Center, Janean Ohin, in her official capacity as Acting Baltimore Field Office Director, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Matthew T. Albence, in his official capacity as Deputy Director and Senior Official performing the duties of the Director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Respondents.

Civil Action No. TDC-20-0780

United States District Court, D. Maryland.

Signed April 3, 2020

Adina B. Appelbaum, Pro Hac Vice, Capital Area Immigrants' Rights (CAIR) Coalition, David Cyrus Fathi, Pro Hac Vice, Eunice Cho, Pro Hac Vice, ACLU National Prison Project, Matthew S. Vogel, Pro Hac Vice, Sirine Shebaya, National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, Washington, DC, Amber Qureshi, National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, Bowie, MD, Michael K.T. Tan, Pro Hac Vice, Omar C. Jadwat, Pro Hac Vice, ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, New York, NY, Nicholas Taichi Steiner, American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, Stephen Kang, Pro Hac Vice, ACLU Foundation Immigrant's Rights Project, San Francisco, CA, for Petitioners Mauricio Coreas, Angel Guzman Cedillo.

Sirine Shebaya, National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers' G, Washington, DC, for Petitioner William Kemcha.

Vincent J. Vaccarella, US Attorney's Office, Baltimore, MD, for Respondents.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

THEODORE D. CHUANG, United States District Judge Petitioners Mauricio Coreas and Angel Guzman Cedillo ("Guzman Cedillo"), currently in immigration detention, have filed this action pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241 against Respondents Donna Bounds, Warden of the Worcester County Detention Center in Snow Hill, Maryland; Jack Kavanaugh, Director of the Howard County Detention Center in Jessup, Maryland; Janean Ohin, the Acting Baltimore Field Office Director for United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE"); Matthew T. Albence, Deputy Director and Senior Official performing the duties of the Director of ICE; and ICE. Pending before the Court is Petitioners’ Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order ("TRO"), seeking their immediate release in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Motion is fully briefed, and the Court held a video hearing on the Motion on April 2, 2020. For the reasons set forth below, the Motion will be DENIED WITHOUT PREJUDICE.

BACKGROUND

I. The COVID-19 Pandemic

The virus identified as SARS-CoV-2, commonly referred to as the novel coronavirus ("the Coronavirus"), has caused a global pandemic of the condition known as COVID-19. As of April 3, 2020, there were 932,166 confirmed cases and 46,764 deaths worldwide. Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic , World Health Org., https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019. As of April 2, 2020, there were 213,144 confirmed cases and 4,513 deaths in the United States. Cases in U.S. , Ctrs. for Disease Control and Prevention, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ("CDC") has projected that, without effective public health intervention, about 200 million people in the United States may contract the disease, and, under some projections, as many as 1.5 million people in the United States may die from the disease. Another organization's projection puts the potential number of American fatalities at 2.2 million. Moreover, some evidence suggests that, even when not fatal, COVID-19 results in long-term, serious illnesses, which may include severe damage to internal organs, in about 16 percent of cases.

COVID-19 poses special risks for the elderly and those with certain preexisting medical conditions. Amici Curiae Public Health and Human Rights Experts Br. at 6-7, ECF No. 32. The CDC has identified several medical conditions that place an individual at an increased risk of serious COVID-19 complications: "blood disorders, chronic kidney or liver disease, compromised immune system, endocrine disorders, including diabetes, metabolic disorders, heart and lung disease, neurological[,] neurologic and neurodevelopmental conditions, and current or recent pregnancy." Greifinger Decl. ¶ 7, Reply Mot. TRO ("Reply") Ex. 6, ECF No. 52-6. Of those who have died from COVID-19 in Italy, another country experiencing a high number of COVID-19 cases, about three-fourths had high blood pressure, one-third had diabetes, and one-third had heart disease. According to Dr. Jonathan Louis Golob, an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan School of Medicine, there is evidence that in the highest risk populations, COVID-19 causes death in about 15 percent of cases. Preliminary data from China has shown that 20 percent of COVID-19 cases involving high-risk categories have resulted in death.

There is no vaccine, antiviral treatment, or cure for COVID-19. The Coronavirus is believed to spread through "droplets" that can be transmitted during close interpersonal contact, though these droplets can also survive on surfaces for days and spread the disease even absent such close contact. Id. ¶ 21. There is some evidence that individuals with the Coronavirus can transmit it to others even when they are not yet symptomatic. Public health measures aiming to stop the spread of the virus—most notably the practice of social distancing—have been widespread: "[s]chools, courts, collegiate and professional sports, theater and other congregate settings have been closed," id. ¶ 8, and many states have issued mandatory social distancing polices. The Governor of Maryland issued a stay-at-home order on March 30, 2020. See Order of the Governor of the State of Maryland § II, No. 20-03-30-01 (Mar. 30, 2020), https://governor.maryland.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Gatherings-FOURTH-AMENDED-3.30.20.pdf. As of April 2, 2020, 40 states and the District of Columbia had issued stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders. See These States Have Implemented Stay-at-Home Orders , CNN (Apr. 2, 2020), https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/23/us/coronavirus-which-states-stay-at-home-order-trnd/index.html.

Prisons, jails, and detention centers are especially vulnerable to outbreaks of COVID-19. First, even if these facilities suspend in-person visitation, the staff, contractors, and vendors working at the facilities can still introduce the Coronavirus into the facility, a risk that is all the more difficult to contain because asymptomatic individuals can transmit the virus and because these facilities lack the capacity to screen for the virus in asymptomatic individuals. According to Petitioners’ expert, Dr. Robert B. Greifinger, an expert on prison and jail health care and the former manager of medical care for the New York State prison system, "[j]ails and detention centers are congregate environments where the risk of infection and infectious spread are extraordinarily high." Greifinger Decl. ¶¶ 1-2, 16. Indeed, there have already been confirmed outbreaks of COVID-19 at several prisons and detention facilities across the United States, including the Rikers Island detention facility in New York City, the Cook County Jail in Chicago, Illinois, and the federal prison in Oakdale, Louisiana, as well as certain New Jersey jails housing ICE detainees. In this region, COVID-19 has been identified in the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, a psychiatric hospital in Jessup, Maryland; and the D.C. Jail in Washington, D.C.

Second, once the Coronavirus is introduced into a detention facility, the nature of these facilities makes the mitigation measures introduced elsewhere in the country difficult or impossible to implement. Detention facilities often lack personal protective equipment that helps prevent the transmission of the virus. Shared facilities, such as bathrooms, dining halls, and telephones, are often not disinfected between uses. Poor ventilation increases the risk of transmission. Detained individuals are often not given the opportunity or tools to wash or sanitize their hands frequently. And the crowded nature of the facilities can make social distancing recommended by the CDC impossible.

The ICE Health Service Corps, which oversees medical care at ICE detention facilities, has issued new guidelines for addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. See Interim Reference Sheet on 2019-Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) , ICE Health Service Corps, Mar. 6, 2020, https://www.aila.org/infonet/ice-interim-reference-sheet-coronavirus. The guidelines set out screening procedures that include questioning incoming detainees about travel and potential contact with individuals with COVID-19 and establish some protocols for isolating and monitoring detainees with COVID-19. However, the guidelines do not advise on how and when to test individuals for COVID-19 or to plan for surges once the illness spreads. They also do not include guidance on how to identify detainees at high risk due to health conditions or how to provide special protection for high-risk detainees.

Some courts have granted motions to release high-risk individuals from ICE detention on constitutional grounds. For example, in New York, a federal judge ordered that ten detainees who face a high risk of complications from COVID-19 be released from New Jersey immigration detention facilities in which the Coronavirus was confirmed to be present. See Basank v. Decker , 20-cv-2518, 449 F.Supp.3d 205, 216, (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 26, 2020). Several other federal courts have also ordered ICE detainees released on the grounds that their continued detention under the threat of the Coronavirus violates the Constitution. See, e.g. , Thakker v. Doll , 20-cv-00480, Doc. No. 47, 451 F.Supp.3d 358, (E.D. Pa. Mar. 31, 2020) ; Castillo v. Barr , No. 20-cv-0605, 449 F.Supp.3d 915, 923 (C.D. Cal. Mar. 27, 2020) ; Coronel v....