SAN DIEGO (Border Report) -- An ongoing COVID-19 outbreak at the Otay Mesa Detention Center is the reason why some migrants are missing their immigration court cases in San Diego, according to Michael Garcia, head of San Diego County’s Immigrant Legal Defense Program.
The detention facility, which is run by CoreCivic, a private company out of Tennessee, houses more than 1,400 detainees, mostly people awaiting deportation or for their court cases to be decided.
“Last week, we had a couple of days in which certain clients were not produced — detention center agreed they were under quarantine,” Garcia said. “Our concern is, what happens if there’s a consistent flow of them not showing up in court and worse yet, if there’s no future court date that’s set immediately.”
Garcia said judges, fo