The Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project recently sued Immigration and Customs Enforcement to force the release of eight people vulnerable to COVID-19.
Most of them have been let go.
The Florence Project and other groups filed the case on April 1, saying ICE had been asked for weeks to release a handful of people held in Arizona with chronic medical conditions.
ICE has been making individual decisions on whether to let out people considered vulnerable to COVID-19.
The Florence Project now says six of the eight people in the lawsuit are out of detention. A spokesperson says the legal aid group believes there is a significant number of people held in Arizona who are extremely vulnerable to the coronavirus. But there’s no reliable data to estimate the total.
At least one group in the Valley has been planning in case ICE chooses to release people by the busload.
