Day 63: A COVID-Filled Day

Today, we received 29 guests from the El Paso Detention Center. They came on a bus and we had to give them COVID tests. 

Out of the 29, 12 were COVID-positive. At the Detention Center, they had been sleeping on the floor with hundreds of people, in very close quarters. Many of them hadn't showered for a full week. 

When we told them they'd have to quarantine, some understood but most were angry, telling us that they didn't have a say in whether or not they contracted the virus. I agreed, and it made me want to punch something. 

They spent the entire afternoon in our isolation rooms, waiting for our director to finalize hotel reservations. 

I keep thinking about one man, who was stretched out on the bed and sweating. He told me he had never felt this sick in his entire life. 

OEM hotel rooms—where we send COVID-positive guests—are dingy, with cinder block walls and rusty bathrooms. 

The worst part is that the phones don't work (at least in the rooms that I've seen). These guests are seriously ill and they can't make a simple phone call. 

It makes me so upset. Not indignant, but depressed. Where is there any humanity in this treatment?  


(A road in Juarez.)

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