Over 40% of staff at Eloy Detention Center have tested positive for COVID-19, operators say

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More than 40% of staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 at the Eloy Detention Center, one of the nation’s largest immigrant holding facilities, underscoring the severity of the coronavirus outbreak at the site where a correctional officer who died in June of complications of the virus had worked. 

The 128 infected staff members represent nearly 41% of the detention center’s 315-person workforce, according to data provided to The Arizona Republic by CoreCivic, the private, for-profit prison company that owns and operates the Eloy Detention Center under contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The center holds people facing removal from the U.S. for immigration violations. Many are awaiting outcomes of asylum applications or legal applications to remain in the U.S. 

The Eloy Detention Center has the second-largest coronavirus outbreak of any immigration detention facility in the country. As of Wednesday, 242 detainees had tested positive for COVID-19, according to the latest ICE data. Of those, 108 remain active cases.

Internal emails obtained by The Arizona Republic, however, showed that on June 22, more than two weeks ago, 270 detainees had tested positive for the coronavirus, dozens higher than data reported publicly by ICE.

The emails were written by Fred Figueroa, the warden at the Eloy Detention Center.

“As of June 22, 2020 we have 101 positive Staff COVID-19 and 16, who have recovered and returned to work. We have 270 positive detainee COVID-19,” Figueroa wrote in one email obtained by The Republic.

Amanda Gilchrist, a spokeswoman for Nashville-based CoreCivic, said the 270 positive detainee cases disclosed in the email was the result of a “typographical error.”

On June 22, ICE medical staff reported 201 positive detainee cases at the facility, an increase of nine from the day before, according to Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe, an ICE spokeswoman.

In the emails the warden outlines protocols for mitigating the spread of the coronavirus inside the facility, including wearing full personal protective equipment, face shields, ponchos, gloves and N95 face masks when entering pods with infected detainees.

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“I know that several are (sic) you are nervous with the amount of staff and detainees who are positive with COVID-19. Unfortunately this is a virus that is highly contagious,” Figueroa wrote.

“As stated above, 16 staff have returned to work and we anticipate several more as the days pass. I cannot stress the importance of practicing social distancing, wearing your mask and required PPE properly. Treating everyone as if they have COVID-19 will help to minimize your exposure. Unfortunately staff that are not adhering to stablished (sic) procedures as it relates to social distancing and wearing PPE correction will be held accountable.”

On June 14, a 32-year-old senior correctional officer, Esteban Mercado, 32, of Casa Grande died of possible COVID-19 complications. He was the father of two children.

After his death, former correctional officer who quit because he felt unsafe working there and a correctional officer currently employed at the Eloy Detention Center said conditions at the facility, including a lack of access to personal protective equipment, and pressure to continuing working even when sick, caused the outbreak to snowball inside and outside of the facility.

MORE: Former Eloy correctional officers blame negligence for outbreak

The correctional officers also accused CoreCivic and ICE officials of under reporting the outbreak at the facility.

The former and current correctional officers say many of the staff working at the Eloy Detention Center have infected family members, including spouses, siblings and children.

CoreCivic and ICE officials have disputed the claims.

Until now, it was not known how many contract employees at the Eloy Detention Center had tested positive because ICE does not publicly release that data. It only releases data on the number of positive cases involving ICE personnel. One ICE employee at Eloy has tested positive, that data shows.

CoreCivic released the data on the number of staff who have tested positive in response to a request from The Republic.

The data shows that  54 of the 128 confirmed staff COVID-19 cases at the Eloy Detention Center involve employees who have recovered.

The data released by CoreCivic shows 71 out of 900 employees at the Central Arizona Florence Correctional Complex have tested positive for the coronavirus. Of those, 27 have recovered.

There are 23 confirmed cases among staff members at the La Palma Correctional Center out of 375 employees, the data shows. Of those, 20 have recovered.

Pinal County health officials are concerned about infected detention staff spreading the virus to the community.

“We have tested a lot of correctional officers, even some that live in other counties. We work with the state and other counties on managing the outbreaks,” Kore Redden,  incident commander of Pinal County’s COVID-19 public health response, said in an email.

“We are working to prevent them from spreading this in our community. We treat them like any other exposure or positive case that resides in our community. “

In addition, Pinal County has dispensed PPE to these facilities “even though they are federal level,” Redden said.

The high number of confirmed COVID-19 staff cases at Eloy is not surprising, said Laura Belous, advocacy attorney at the Florence Project, a group that offers free legal assistance to detained immigrants in Arizona.

The Florence Project filed a lawsuit in federal court in June asking a judge to release certain detainees at the Eloy Detention Center and La Palma Correctional Center because they have underlining medical conditions that put them at greater risk of dying from the virus.

“We are so saddened to hear how drastically the virus has affected staff members who work at the Eloy Detention Center and their families,” Belous said in an email. “Although our work is advocating for detainees, we know staff at Eloy and have worked with them for years. This news is not surprising to us, given what our clients have reported to us about conditions inside. It’s an important reminder that detention center health is part of public health. We wish all of those affected a speedy recovery.”  

Reach the reporter at daniel.gonzalez@arizonarepublic.com or at 602-444-8312. Follow him on Twitter @azdangonzalez.

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