Archilla v. Witte is a federal lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials on behalf of 18 medically vulnerable people currently held in ICE’s Etowah Detention Center in Gadsden, Alabama. The lawsuit and an accompanying motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) seek the immediate release of these individuals, citing their severe risk of contracting coronavirus and developing life-threatening COVID-19 symptoms as well as ICE’s long and notorious history of failing to address serious overcrowding, unsafe and unsanitary facilities, and failure to provide adequate medical care and protection against outbreaks of infectious disease. The complaint and TRO seeking release warn that the near-certainty of coronavirus outbreaks in this facility renders the continued detention of these individuals a potential death sentence for those detained for only a civil immigration violation.
https://ccrjustice.org/home/what-we-do/our-cases/williams-v-horton