Buerkle, Caroline, GOV RE: Alarming sltuatlon at Otero County Center In Chaparral, NM Thank you. I know you have discussed it on our calls but I wanted the latest update. CB From: Kunkel, Kathy, DOH Sent: Friday, May 8,202011 1 AM To: Buerkle, Caroline, GOV Cc: Casados, Teresa, Subject: Fte: Alarming situation at Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral, NM I called or Alex Eastman in this last week 2 he said USDHS authority "iffy" due to contractor manager. We continue to call daily to medical director. Senl over 500 test kits. We are trying to get in there, also want to stop transter ii detainees trom other states Continue to work it Sent trom my iPhone On May 8, 2020, at 11 :44 AM, Buerkle, Caroline, GOV wrote: Please look below-CB From: AVID in the Chihuahuan Desert Sent: Friday, May 8, 2020 11 :42 AM To: Buerkle, Caroline, GOV Cc: Gabello, Dominic, GOV ,Wishner, Jane, GOV Urcia, MatI, GOV Fluybal, Matt, GOV Reyes, Victor, GOV Subiect: Alarming situation at Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral, NM Dear Ms. Buerkle, After speaking with several individuals detained in the Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral, New Mexico (an ICE detention lacility), I called the Governor's office yesterday to report directly to Gov. Lujan-Grisham's oliice about the situation unfolding in Otero. I was given your email address, but I am also copying several individuals to whom our organization has addressed letters in the last month regarding concerns 01 the spread of COVID-19 in ICE detention iacilities in New Mexico. I also Called the state's Coronavirus Hotline to report what I was told. They expressed great concern and advised me to contact the Otero County Health Department. Yesterday, I spoke with 4 individuals who are in quarantine in Otero since Sunday, May 3, 2020 when someone in their dorm tested positive. That individual was taken out 01 that dorm, but there are 31 individuals still there. It is not possible to practice social distancing. Because they are in quarantine, they do not leave the dorm at all - to eat, to go outside, to go to the law library. Yesterday another individual in the dorm was showing symptoms - body aches and chills, headaches, and a temperature (a nurse is taking temperatures twice a day). That individual had not yet been tested for COVID-19, nor had anyone one else in the dorm. The dorm is not disinfected on a daily basis. Rather, the people inside are brought supplies to clean the dorm themselves. Occasionally the supplies do not come, so a day might pass when no cleaning is done. But at best cleaning is done once a day by those in the pod - not by facility staff. Some staff will rush them when they are cleaning. The sheets they have are the same ones they have had for more than a month. They have not been laundered. Their clothes are laundered every two days. They place them in a bag to be taken to be laundered. The clothes are not removed from the bag, but are washed and dried in the bag. When the clothes are returned, some guards will throw them on the floor and tell people to pick them up. When they remove their clothes from the bag, the clothes are still damp. They try to hang the clothes on their beds to dry properly, and guards will sometimes yell at them for doing so. They were given masks a few weeks ago, but they are using the same masks they were originally given. They are given a small packet of combo soap/shampoo, and when it runs out they have to return the empty packet to get a new one. Hand sanitizer was installed in the shared bathroom, but when it runs out it is not always replaced right away. This is only one of several dorms that are in quarantine because individuals came in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. As of yesterday 12 people in Otero County Processing Center tested positive for COVID-19. Those numbers are not taken into account by the New Mexico Department of Health. NM DOH reports only 9 cases in Otero County as of yesterday. By not including the detention center in those counts, the growing risk is masked. There are, in fact, more than twice that many people infected in Otero County. And, because many of those infections are coming from the congregate setting of the detention facility, the likelihood that those numbers will quickly increase is high. When the numbers are examined by zip code, 88081 has 40 cases - this includes the community of Chaparral and the detention center. All of these individuals, whether community members or those in detention, will be treated at the same hospitals if they require treatment. It is unclear to what degree, or how, the state or county health departments are overseeing what is happening at Otero County Processing Center. The Governor and state officials should be alarmed at what is unfolding in Chaparral. Advocates have been warning the Governor and state officials since mid-March that detention facilities would become hot spots. These facilities have a history of medical negligence that make them poorly suited to handling this public health problem. The state of New Mexico must immediately conduct an independent evaluation of the facility. And the Governor does indeed have a responsibility to make sure ICE significantly reduces detention numbers by immediately releasing people before our community health infrastructure is overwhelmed. Sincerely, Margaret Brown Vega -Advocate Visitors with Immigrants in Detention P.O. Box 214 Las Cruces, NM 88004 avid@chihuahuan.org Webpage: http://avid.chihuahuan.org/ Find out about the Dignity Not Detention Movement in New Mexico: http://dignity.chihuahuan.org/ Confidentiality Notice: This email and any attachments are for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and contain information that may be confidential and/or legally privileged. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender and delete the message. Any disclosure, copying, distribution, or use of this communication by someone other than the intended recipient is prohibited.