Advocates for immigrants lined up in their cars on Friday outside the Monroe County Jail to protest detentions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the pandemic.
There are 31 ICE detainees at the jail, according to ICE.
Rocky Coronado is with Rapid Response Detroit and says immigrants are housed at a dorm-style open room at the jail.
"The dormitory that they're in right now is just one huge room so there's no way to separate anybody if anybody got sick," says Coronado. "It's hard to social distance and have strict hygiene protocols."
Coronado says ICE should release the detainees.
ICE says it has released about 700 high-risk detainees from detention centers across the country, and it has dramatically reduced the introduction of new detainees into the system, by 60% since March 1st.
The agency says detainees are being tested for COVID-19 in line with CDC guidance, and there have been no positive COVID 19 cases at the Monroe County jail, likely because of an aggressive pandemic response plan that was put in place there.
