Amid coronavirus outbreak, ICE releases asylum seeker in Henderson

A 51-year-old asylum seeker from war-torn Cameroon walked out of a Henderson jail two days after the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada pushed for his release.

Christopher Njingu’s lawyer found him on Basic Road near the Henderson Detention Center on Thursday afternoon.

“He started crying when he saw me,” attorney Enedina Kassamanian said Friday. “He didn’t understand why he was detained.”

The ACLU of Nevada had filed court papers earlier this week asking that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement be ordered to release Njingu and Daniel Mosso Ramirez, arguing that their lives were at risk inside the jail because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Kassamanian said Njingu, who was a victim of torture in his home country, suffers from hypertension and high cholesterol.

The lawyer said that when she would speak with Njingu through a video monitor at the jail, she noticed other inmates crowding behind him, waving and dancing.

“There was no way he could protect himself from that when he would speak to me,” she said. “Anyone could walk past and jeopardize his health. … There is no way to protect certain inmates from the spread of that disease.”

Immigration officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Last week, the ACLU wrote Nevada agencies affiliated with jails and prisons, demanding prevention of the spread of the virus among the state’s incarcerated. The letter, which referenced the Henderson jail, was delivered after Nevada prison officials announced that an employee of High Desert State Prison in Indian Springs had tested positive for the virus.

Henderson police Chief Thedrick Andres said last weekend that 13 ICE detainees were isolated in individual cells within a separate unit at the Henderson jail after an ICE agent from Utah transported them to the jail a week earlier. The detainees were isolated after the agent started to show symptoms of COVID-19.

Ramirez, meanwhile, remains in custody. He is a citizen of Mexico who has been detained in Henderson since February, according to the ACLU court papers. A legal resident of the United States since 1989, Ramirez suffers from prediabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol.

“We’re grateful that ICE recognizes the threat that COVID-19 poses to the medically vulnerable population at Henderson Detention Center and hopeful that they’ll continue to release individuals to the safety of their families,” ACLU spokesman Wesley Juhl said in an email after Njingu’s release.

His lawyer said he plans to stay with family in Maryland, where he will continue to seek asylum and prove that he has been a victim of persecution.

Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.