Almost one-third of immigrants detained in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody have refused the opportunity to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, according to agency statistics.
An ICE official confirmed to Fox News that the vaccine declination rate in all ICE detention centers is 30%.
According to current ICE data, there are 1,182 positive cases among 27,067 detainees in custody.
The ongoing crisis at the southern border has raised concern about possible infection not only for migrants who frequently travel to the border in cramped and unsanitary conditions, but also for ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) staff and then into the public at large if they are released into the U.S.
The Biden administration has been aggressively urging all who are eligible to get a vaccine amid a spike in cases originating from the delta variant. According to Axios, which first reported the declination rate, ICE recently began distributing an initial allotment of 10,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and that more than 9,500 doses have been distributed so far. – READ MORE
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