An immigrant in an ICE detention center tested positive for the coronavirus. Immigrant advocates are fearing the worst.

• ICE has reported the first case of coronavirus in a detained immigrant on Tuesday.
• Immigration rights advocates have raised concerns over how the coronavirus might spread in detention facilities, where people are unable to practice social distancing.
• Immigration lawyer Greg Copeland told Business Insider Today he fears the US is using coronavirus fears to further anti-immigrant policies.
• View more episodes of Business Insider Today on Facebook.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials reported the first confirmed case of the coronavirus in a detained immigrant, the agency announced on Tuesday.

The patient, a 31-year old Mexican migrant, was being held at the Bergen County Jail in Hackensack, New Jersey, which houses both county inmates and ICE detainees.

He is "quarantined and receiving care," according to NPR. The county's sheriff department said in a statement it would monitor those who came in contact with the patient, as well as enact lockdown procedures like restricting inmate movements and opening an isolated unit of the jail.

While ICE said no new migrants would be allowed into the jail, the agency has yet to announce a policy of releasing immigrants to lower the risk of an outbreak.

Immigrant rights advocates have raised concerns about the well-being of migrants in ICE custody, especially those being held in close quarters, amid the spread of the pandemic.

"What we're seeing is people that are terrified, people that feel, I think legitimately, that there hasn't been any sort of minimally adequate plan put in place for how to prevent the virus from spreading within the facilities," Gregory Copeland, an immigration attorney at Rapid Defense Network, told Business Insider Today.

Copeland, who has visited the Hackensack facility and other ICE detention centers, says the conditions are often terrible.

"You've got people that are detained together in big groups, sleeping in rooms with people, with big groups," he said. "They don't have control over being around people or keeping their distance. They don't have control over being able to wash their hands. At lots of these facilities, they don't have any hand sanitizer."

More than 37,000 immigrants are being held inside the more than 200 ICE detention centers across the country, according to NPR.

In addition to the confirmed migrant case, 19 ICE employees have also tested positive for the coronavirus, including one who works at the Elizabeth Contract Detention Center in New Jersey. The others do not work at detention centers, the agency said.

The ACLU sued ICE last week to allow vulnerable migrants to be released from detention centers in Washington state, which has been hit hard by the virus. Advocates like Copeland are urging the agency to release detainees who are pregnant, have compromised immune systems, or have other conditions that put them at risk.

"The fact that we're still detaining people that are definitely not dangerous otherwise is a sign that we're still pushing some sort of anti-immigration policy, despite the fact that now we've got this countervailing huge public health reason to let them out," Copeland said.

Last week, ICE announced it would halt most arrests in light of the outbreak, and focus on pursuing people who pose public safety risks and people subject to mandatory detention on criminal grounds.

But even that doesn't go far enough, considering detainees' inability to practice social distancing and other safety measures, Copeland said.

"We see the president every day get up and stand next to a bunch of doctors and give advice about what to do," he added. "You can't do those things when you're being detained. You can't stay six feet away from other people. You can't take any of the most basic measures that everyone's being advised to do."

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