Cedar Right Inn facility

164 new cases, including seven new cases at federal facilities

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The state announced 164 new cases of COVID-19, including seven new individuals held in federal agencies at the Otero County Prison Facility. The new cases, announced through the state Department of Health, bring the total to 5,662 cases of the type of coronavirus that causes respiratory illness. The state also announced 11 new deaths related to the virus, which brings the total of deaths to 253. 

There are 223 individuals hospitalized for the virus in the state, an increase of 14. In a press conference on Friday, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said 52 of these patients are on ventilators. This number may include individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 out of state but are currently hospitalized in New Mexico.

Adriel Orozco

Groups rally outside Cibola County jail

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Without intervention, as much as 100 percent of immigrants in detention centers could test positive for COVID-19 within the next 90 days and overwhelm state healthcare systems, according to a recent study. The study, produced by the Washington D.C., nonprofit advocacy group the Government Accountability Project, states that, optimistically, 72 percent could become infected with COVID-19 in immigrant detention facilities. The projected 100 percent reflects the pessimistic estimation, the study says. Those projections mean that state health care systems would be overwhelmed, the study reports. A group of advocacy organizations organized a rally, called “Free Them All Friday,” which consisted of about 30 cars that drove around the Cibola County Correctional Center, which holds immigrant detainees for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Friday afternoon to try to bring attention to this problem.

Corecivic

Inside a private prison’s $150M deal to detain immigrants in New Mexico

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Just shy of his third year in the United States, 24-year-old oil pipeline worker Diego Navarro said goodbye to his California friends. It was early April, and the Oklahoma resident was anxious to return home, having used a break in his work schedule to make the trip west. Navarro, who entered the U.S. without documentation in 2014, typically worked 10- to 14-hour days as part of the country’s petroleum processing machine. But at a stop for gas during the drive back with a friend, Navarro was swept up in the billion-dollar business of private immigrant detention instead. This story was originally published by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area.