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Life in the Time of the Coronavirus
I’m Being Held at a Border Detention Center. I’m Scared They’ll Let Us Die.
The virus spread quickly in San Diego’s Otay Mesa Detention Center. Detainees were given one mask and cleaning spray.
Life in the Time of the Coronavirus is a GEN series where we are interviewing people across the country who have had their lives upended or are experiencing the stress of the unknown.
This anonymous, 37-year-old Honduran man has been detained in the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, California, since August 26. The virus has spread quickly in Otay Mesa, with ICE now reporting that 20 detainees and eight ICE employees have tested positive for Covid-19. The outbreak, along with complaints from detainees about the impossibility of social distancing and lack of protective equipment, has sparked a hunger strike.
I’m from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, but had to flee in 2016 because gangs threatened to kill me. I had a shop where I fixed and sold cellphones. Twice I missed the rent payments — what the gang would collect every week — and they started looking for me. They showed up, armed, at my mom’s house and said they needed to talk to me. I escaped out the back and called a friend, who picked…
