KTLA

Assemblywoman with mask donation is turned away from San Diego immigration detention center

A photo shared by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego)shows her speaking to the media outside the Otay Mesa Detention Center on April 24, 2020.

Staff at Otay Mesa Detention Center did not allow Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez to donate masks to help protect detainees from the COVID-19 outbreak when she showed up at the facility‘s gate Friday.

Gonzalez, whose district includes the detention center, joined with several immigrant rights organizations to gather about 1,000 masks to give to detainees who said they weren’t receiving adequate protection from the novel coronavirus.

“It’s rare that I feel so powerless to change something in my community and my district,” said Gonzalez (D-San Diego) said.

“These are human beings,” she said. “We don’t have mass deaths, but we know where this is going.”

Read the full story on LATimes.com.