BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS - U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela has joined congressional colleagues in asking President Trump to halt deportation flights and swiftly and safely release migrants in detention centers in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The members of the Congressional; Hispanic Caucus say lives are at stake.
In a letter sent to Secretary of State Pompeo and Acting Homeland Security Secretary Wolf, the CHC members raised concerns that the U.S. practice of deporting and expelling migrants throughout the Latin America and Caribbean region is contributing to the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus to countries least able to protect people from the deadly virus.
“According to recent reports, well over 100 individuals deported to Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Haiti tested positive for COVID-19, portending a calamitous spread of the disease throughout the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region. Prior to the outbreak, these countries struggled with internal challenges such as political discord, economic instability, and inadequate healthcare,” Vela and other members of the CHC wrote.
“The spread of COVID-19 has been exacerbated by the U.S. government’s failure to test all people slated to be deported or expelled.”
In addition to Vela, D-Brownsville, the letter was signed by CHC Chairman Joaquin Castro of San Antonio, Texas, Second Vice Chair Nanette Diaz Barragán of California, Whip Adriano Espaillat of New York, Representative Veronica Escobar of El Paso, Texas, Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez of New York, Congressman Juan Vargas pf California, Congressman Jesús "Chuy" García of Illinois, Congressman Tony Cárdenas of California, Congresswoman Sylvia R. Garcia of Houston, Texas, Congressman Darren Soto of Florida, Congresswoman Grace F. Napolitano of California, Congressman José E. Serrano of New York, Congresswoman Norma J. Torres, of California, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and Congressman Raúl Grijalva of Arizona.
May 20, 2020
Dear Secretary Pompeo and Acting Secretary Wolf,
As the world continues to struggle through the global COVID-19 pandemic, we are writing to express our grave concerns over the continuing deportation and expulsion of people to countries that lack the political, health, and social infrastructures necessary to contend with the disease. We call upon you to halt the deportation and expulsion of individuals. Further, we urge you to swiftly and safely release individuals into the care of family or friends in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, preserve regional stability, and save lives.
According to recent reports, well over 100 individuals deported to Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Haiti tested positive for COVID-19, portending a calamitous spread of the disease throughout the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region.[1] Prior to the outbreak, these countries struggled with internal challenges such as political discord, economic instability, and inadequate healthcare. In light of such concerns, they are ill-equipped to manage any increased exposure to COVID-19 or withstand a national epidemic. The danger to these countries and the LAC region goes beyond health and includes the related risk of political crises, as demonstrated by countries, like Hungary, taking advantage of the pandemic to exert control.[2] Given the vulnerability of many countries in the LAC region, the deportations are particularly egregious because ICE detention centers are experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks, and U.S. immigration authorities do not systematically test people for the disease.[3] As such, the defeat of COVID-19 depends on our ability to prevent the spread of the virus to other countries and willingness to participate in a coordinated regional effort. As the world’s leading democracy, the United States must advance such an effort not only to safeguard international interests, but to make our own country safe. However, the Administration’s choice to return people to ill-prepared countries represents an isolationist posture that undermines U.S. leadership, injures our relationships, threatens instability, and hinders our best chances of vanquishing COVID-19.
While the U.S. continues to deport and expel people, the list of destination countries appears to have expanded in the LAC region in 2020 to include Mexico, Brazil, Nicaragua, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, and Jamaica.[4]Demonstrating the exponential danger of these deportations and expulsions, at least 44 migrants flown on one flight to Guatemala tested positive for Coronavirus,[5]one individual flown to Mexico appears to have spread the disease to 14 others,[6] and about 24 of 64 migrants tested positive for COVID-19 on a flight to Colombia.[7] Infected individuals not only face the trauma of battling COVID-19 in a country where treatment may not be immediately accessible, they also may face discrimination and violence from local communities who fear transmission of the disease.[8]The risk to unaccompanied minors is particularly grave since they are vulnerable to traffickers or extended networks of abuse or exploitation upon return to LAC.
The public reaction to some people who have been deported or expelled to several LAC countries stems from the institutional incapacity of governments to contend with the fallout from the virus. For example, as the poorest country in the Americas, Haiti is wracked by political turmoil and poor infrastructure. Even before the pandemic, Haiti suffered from a collapsing healthcare system with only 100 ventilators for 11 million residents[9] and, as advocates report, 124 ICU beds for the entire country. While the government attempts to quarantine people upon arrival, an individual who had tested positive for the virus was able to flee quarantine.[10]
The spread of COVID-19 has been exacerbated by the U.S. government’s failure to test all people slated to be deported or expelled. Since the onset of COVID-19, U.S. immigration authorities have claimed to conduct minimal medical screening, such as taking people’s temperature and watching for obvious symptoms, but have not consistently administered COVID-19 tests.[11]This type of minimal screening is insufficient, as observed by Mexican immigration officers who wondered how individuals with a dry cough, red eyes, and a fever were allowed to board flights.[12] While the U.S. government has allegedly agreed to test individuals before they are deported to Guatemala (after Guatemala halted flights in April due to COVID-19 transmission),[13]as well as additional migrants in detention,[14] U.S. immigration officials will not commit to administering coronavirus tests for all people deported or expelled from the U.S.[15]
The reluctance of U.S. immigration authorities to comprehensively administer COVID-19 tests reflects their failure to conduct wide-scale testing of U.S. government detention or holding facilities. Many of the deportees come from ICE detention centers where only an estimated one percent of the population has been tested.[16] Of those tested, 60 percent tested positive for the virus[17]– revealing the chance that deportees would have been exposed to the virus. In addition, flights with infected individuals have come from airfield holding centers where multiple employees tested positive for COVID-19.[18] Alarmingly, planes that were used for deportation and expulsion have also been used to repatriate Americans back to the U.S.,[19] one of which was confirmed to have carried migrants that tested positive.[20] Detention, deportation, and expulsion practices are, thus, putting migrants, staff, repatriated U.S. citizens, and the populations of destination countries at unacceptable risk.
Finally, it is in our country’s interest to halt the deportations because they could strengthen a would-be authoritarian government power grab and risk exposing people to serious human rights abuses. Under the pretense of quarantine and prevention, a number of governments are increasing surveillance and squashing dissent in the LAC region.[21] In El Salvador, President Bukele has defied a Supreme Court order by continuing to lock up more than 2,000 people for violating social-distancing rules, prompting “a constitutional crisis in one of Latin America’s most violent countries.”[22] In Brazil, which has the highest rate of COVID-19 infection in Latin America, President Bolsonaro of Brazil denies the severity of COVID-19, obstructing a nation-wide response, as a last-ditch effort to distance himself from a likely economic recession.[23]The rise of authoritarian influences in the region forewarns of greater societal unrest and the spread of COVID-19, as well as a collapse in regional, inter-state trade that has dire consequences for U.S. supply chains. This scenario is particularly worrisome given that multiple Ambassadorial posts in the region are vacant and filled by Acting Ambassadors.
With these concerns in mind, we ask that you answer the following questions:
The U.S. practice of deporting and expelling migrants throughout the LAC region contributes to the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus to the countries least able to protect its people from the deadly effects of the disease. It is the moral responsibility of our country to halt the deportations and expulsions and to provide all available assistance to the region, which will be devastated if preventive and responsive measures are not taken immediately to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
Please provide answers to the above questions by May 29, 2020.
Yours sincerely
[1] Jonathan Blitzer, “The Trump Administration’s Deportation Policy is Spreading the Coronavirus,” The New Yorker, May 13, 2020.
[2] The Economist, “Would-Be Autocrats Are Using COVID-19 As An Excuse to Grab More Power,” April 23, 2020.
[3] Kevin Sieff, Nick Miroff, “U.S. is Deporting Infected Migrants Back to Vulnerable Countries,” Washington Post, April 21, 2020.
[4] Jake Johnston, “Exporting COVID-19: ICE Air Conducted Deportation Flights to 11 LAC Countries, Flight Data Shows,” Center for Economic and Policy Research, April 27, 2020.
[5] Natalie Gallon, “44 Migrants on One US Deportation Flight Tested Positive For Coronavirus,” CNN, April 17, 2020.
[6] Kevin Sieff, Nick Miroff, “U.S. is Deporting Infected Migrants Back to Vulnerable Countries,” Washington Post, April 21, 2020.
[7] Arshad Mohammed, Julia Symmes Cobb, Frank Jack Daniel, “Two Dozen People Deported to Colombia on U.S. Flight Found to Have Coronavirus: Sources,” Reuters, April 29, 2020.
[8] Sonia Perez D., “Virus Fear Turns Deportees Into Pariahs at Home in Guatemala,” Associated Press, May 4, 2020.
[9] Andre Paultre, “Haiti Receives More Deportees from U.S. Despite Coronavirus Fears,” Reuters, April 23, 2020.
[10] Andre Paultre, “Haiti Receives More Deportees from U.S. Despite Coronavirus Fears,” Reuters, April 23, 2020.
[11] Carrie Kahn, “Migrant Advocates Call for More Testing Before Deportations,” NPR, May 2, 2020.
[12]Kevin Sieff, Nick Miroff, “U.S. is Deporting Infecting Migrants Back to Vulnerable Countries,” Washington Post, April 21, 2020.
[13] Cindy Carcamo, Mary O’Toole “Migrants Deported by U.S. Make Up More Than 15% of Guatemala’s Coronavirus Cases,” Los Angeles Times, May 4, 2020.
[14] Ted Hesson, Mica Rosenberg, “U.S. to Test Some Immigrants for Coronavirus Before Deportation,” Reuters, April 23, 2020.
[15] Kevin Sieff, Nick Miroff, “U.S. is Deporting Infected Migrants Back to Vulnerable Countries,” Washington Post, April 21, 2020.
[16] Jeffery Martin, “60 Percent of ICE Detainees Tested Have Coronavirus,” Newsweek, April 28, 2020.
[17] Jeffery Martin, “60 Percent of ICE Detainees Tested Have Coronavirus,” Newsweek, April 28, 2020.
[18] Arshad Mohammed, Julia Symmes Cobb, Frank Jack Daniel, “Two Dozen People Deported to Colombia on U.S. Flight Found to Have Coronavirus: Sources,” Reuters, April 29, 2020.
[19] Daniel Gonzalez, “273 Americans Stuck in Central America Flown Back to the U.S. on ICE Deportation Flights,” USA Today, March 27, 2020.
[20] Arshad Mohammed, Julia Symmes Cobb, Frank Jack Daniel, “Two Dozen People Deported to Colombia on U.S. Flight Found to Have Coronavirus: Sources,” Reuters, April 29, 2020.
[21] Selam Gebrekidan, “For Autocrats, and Others, Coronavirus Is a Chance to Grab Even More Power,” The New York Times, March 30, 2020; Geoff Thale, “Latin America’s Next Generation of Authoritarians is Using COVID-19 to Consolidate Power,” El Faro, May 13, 2020.
[22] The Economist, “Would-be Autocrats Are Using COVID-19 as an Excuse to Grab More Power,” April 23 2020 Edition.
[23] Julie Ricard, Juliana Medeiros, “Using Misinformation as a Political Weapon: COVID-19 and Bolsonaro in Brazil,” Harvard Kennedy School Mis/Information Review, April 17, 2020.
Editor’s Note: The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), founded in December 1976, is organized as a Congressional Member organization, governed under the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives. The CHC says it is dedicated to voicing and advancing, through the legislative process, issues affecting Hispanics in the United States, Puerto Rico and U.S. Territories.
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