# ICE’s Management of COVID-19 in Its Detention Facilities Provides Lessons Learned for Future Pandemic Responses
> **Inspection / Evaluation** by Department of Homeland Security OIG · 2021-09-09
> *About: Department of Homeland Security*
## Report
- **Title:** ICE’s Management of COVID-19 in Its Detention Facilities Provides Lessons Learned for Future Pandemic Responses
- **Submitting OIG:** Department of Homeland Security OIG
- **Component agency:** Department of Homeland Security
- **Type:** Inspection / Evaluation
- **Publication date:** 2021-09-09

## Summary

ICE has taken various actions to prevent the pandemic’s spread among detainees and staff at their detention facilities. At the nine facilities we remotely inspected, these measures included maintaining adequate supplies of PPE such as face masks, enhanced cleaning, and proper screening for new detainees and staff. However, we found other areas in which detention facilities struggled to properly manage the health and safety of detainees. For example, we observed instances where staff and detainees did not consistently wear face masks or socially distance.


## Recommendations

- **Rec 1** (Closed): We recommend the Director, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: Ensure detention facilities meet ICE’s COVID-19requirements in the PRR, including:x wearing of masks by detention facility staff;x testing of all new arrivals to ICE detention…
- **Rec 2** (Closed): We recommend the Director, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: Revise the cohort tracking report to differentiate between cohorts of detainees with confirmed cases of contagious diseases and those withsuspected cases or who have been in contact…
- **Rec 3** (Open): Develop specific guidance regarding communication withdetainees regarding their medical conditions and care and ensure facilitiesimplement this guidance.
- **Rec 4** (Closed): We recommend the Director, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: Ensure completion of custody redeterminations for high-risk detainees and appropriately track custody redeterminations in ICE’s data systems.
- **Rec 5** (Open): We recommend the Director, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: Ensure all detention facilities that conduct whole-facilitytesting have submitted plans to ICE and that these plans have been approved.
- **Rec 6** (Closed): We recommend the Director, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: Implement and track corrective action plans related todiscrepancies found during the monthly spot checks.
## Source
- [oversight.gov report page](https://www.oversight.gov/reports/ices-management-covid-19-its-detention-facilities-provides-lessons-learned-future-pandemic)
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