During the final months of the Trump administration ICE continued to detain and deport immigrants despite the serious risk of COVID19 exposure and outbreaks of COVID-19 in detention centers around the country, including Pulaski County Jail and Kankakee County Jail in Illinois where Indiana residents are regularly detained in ICE custody. This was part of that administration’s policy that prioritized all immigrants, regardless of criminal history or family ties to the US, for deportation. The Trump administration largely ignored the health risks of continuing to detain large numbers of people in county jails.

Then in first weeks of January, dozens of detained individuals were abruptly transferred from detention in Clay County, Indiana to Kay County, Oklahoma—10 hours and 690 miles away from their families and legal counsel -- a change in ICE procedures. To further complicate things, this means that these immigrants now have to face judges in El Paso, Texas instead of Chicago, IL with whom their midwestern attorneys would not be familiar. This left attorneys and families scrambling to figure out if they needed to contact ICE in Chicago, Dallas, or somewhere else to obtain information about their loved ones. Further complicating the situation, detainees transferred to Kay County are required to quarantine for 14 days to deter the potential spread of coronavirus, however this means that they cannot be transported to their court hearings—delaying their requests for release on bond.

On January 20, 2021 President Biden signed an executive order ending the Trump Administration’s priorities and on the same day the Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security issued a new temporary policy prioritizing only those suspected of terrorism, recent arrivals, and those convicted of aggravated felonies. Yet, in spite of this change in guidance, many long-time Hoosier community members are being detained in Oklahoma without a clear or orderly path to release and are stuck in administrative limbo as their cases are transferred from one court to another, and from one ICE office to another. To make matters worse, in spite of this guidance, this weekend more of our neighbors were transferred to Kay County, further complicating their cases.

We are demanding that:

1) all detainees that were transferred from Clay County to Kay County who are not priorities under the new policy be released immediately and provided transportation back to their families and communities in Indiana.

2)  that the Chicago ICE Field Office transparently provide the reason for these transfers and commit to not transfer individuals outside of the jurisdiction of the Chicago Immigration Court, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and their own office (in Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Kentucky).