Letters Call for Access to Vaccines in ICE Facilities in NY

The NYCLU, along with legal service providers The Bronx Defenders, The Brooklyn Defenders Service, and The Legal Aid Society, sent letters today to address months of inaction and silence regarding plans to make COVID-19 vaccines available to people in ICE custody in New York. In separate letters to Jeffrey Searls, the officer in charge of the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, NY, and to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Dept. of Health Commissioner Howard Zucker, the groups detailed the dire risks facing people incarcerated and working in immigration detention facilities, and especially in Batavia where several outbreaks have taken place. The letters request clarity on ICE plans to make vaccines accessible within its own facilities and the state’s plans to incorporate people in ICE detention into its existing priority groups.