Senator Wiener’s Statement on Transfers of Incarcerated Individuals to ICE Detention Facilities

SACRAMENTO - Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) released the following statement regarding COVID-19, its impact on California’s prison population, and the transfer of incarcerated individuals into ICE detention facilities. He will speak today on this issue at the Senate Public Safety Committee Hearing at 9am, which can be seen live here.

Senator Wiener said: 

“The recent COVID-19 outbreak at San Quentin State Prison is horrifying. With over 1,000 active cases at San Quentin, one in five people in the incarcerated population has tested positive. This is a devastating situation, and it was absolutely preventable.

"The San Quentin outbreak serves as a reminder that California must protect our prison populations, by releasing people early and conducting broader testing. We also must stop transfers of incarcerated individuals to ICE detention centers. These private prisons are COVID-19 hubs, and transferring people there is inhumane and unacceptable. One in three ICE detainees tests positive for COVID-19, which is unconscionable. Elderly incarcerated immigrants are being sent to these facilities. California prisons must stop transferring people to ICE detention facilities, given this major health risk. California should not hand people over to the reckless federal government, which has proven over
 and over that it doesn’t care about the health and well-being of immigrants.”