Recording Confirmed COVID-19 Cases in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Facilities – Center for Data Innovation

The Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit research and policy organization, is recording the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases for people detained in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities. Even though ICE updates the number of cumulative confirmed cases on its webpage each day, this update replaces previously reported numbers rather than presenting them longitudinally, making it difficult to track changes in cases over time. To better track these changes, the Vera Institute of Justice archives ICE’s webpage on a daily basis to compile a dataset of confirmed COVID-19 cases in each ICE facility. The dataset includes information on the facility name, the current number of individuals with confirmed cases that are under isolation or monitoring, the cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 cases since March 24, and the number of COVID-19 deaths in each facility compared to the total number of COVID-19 deaths among all ICE detainees.