
ICE detainees clash with Massachusetts jail officials over coronavirus
It is the ninth time since a national emergency was declared that staff at detention centers used pepper spray on protesting ICE detainees.
Watch CBS News
Camilo Montoya-Galvez is an award-winning reporter covering immigration for CBS News, where his reporting is featured across multiple CBS News and Stations platforms, including the CBS News 24/7, CBSNews.com and CBS News Radio.
Montoya-Galvez is also part of CBS News' team of 2024 political campaign reporters.
Montoya-Galvez joined CBS News in 2018 and has reported hundreds of articles on immigration, the U.S. immigration policy, the contentious debate on the topic, and connected issues. He's landed exclusive stories and developed in-depth reports on the impact of significant policy changes. He's also extensively reported on the people affected by a complex immigration system.
Before joining CBS News, Montoya-Galvez spent over two years as an investigative unit producer and assignment desk editor at Telemundo's television station in New York City. His work at Telemundo earned three New York Emmy Awards.
Earlier, he was the founding editor of After the Final Whistle, an online bilingual publication featuring stories that highlight soccer's role in contemporary society.
He was born in Cali, Colombia's third-largest city, and raised in northern New Jersey.
He earned a bachelor's degree in media and journalism studies/Spanish from Rutgers University.
It is the ninth time since a national emergency was declared that staff at detention centers used pepper spray on protesting ICE detainees.
"We leave our families, fleeing our home countries to try to save our lives. And then we come here and die while imprisoned," one asylum-seeker told CBS News.
At least 99 of Guatemala's 500 COVID-19 cases are among deportees. Experts fear U.S. continuing its policy could overwhelm Guatemala's small public health system.
The judge ordered officials to promptly release children with sponsors from immigrant detention facilities, where the coronavirus has spread in recent weeks.
Some 52,000 would-be immigrants could lose the opportunity to move to the U.S. over the next two months under the order, according to one estimate.
"There's fear among all of us," Marco, a Cuban asylum-seeker detained in Louisiana, told CBS News.
The president said the move is necessary to protect American workers reeling from an economy battered by the coronavirus pandemic.
U.S. Judge Jesus Bernal required ICE to consider releasing immigrants over 55, pregnant women and detainees with chronic health conditions
There are growing concerns about the U.S. sending infected deportees to the Central American country, which only has 214 confirmed cases.
At least half of the nation's agricultural workers are undocumented — and they will not be getting coronavirus relief checks.
A shelter in Chicago reported at least 37 cases of coronavirus among children in government custody, and it expects that number to rise.
The filing cited declarations by doctors who said immigrants are foregoing medical care for coronavirus, fearing immigration consequences.
"We are also at risk of dying. We are also people, human beings," one Cuban asylum-seeker held by ICE in Louisiana told CBS News.
The U.S. is also rapidly expelling unaccompanied migrant children. Top border official Mark Morgan said they could also pose an "absolute public health risk" to the U.S.
Hours before the announcement, a federal judge ordered the release of 22 sick immigrants in Pennsylvania, warning of "catastrophic outcomes."