The Trump Administration’s zero-tolerance policy toward immigrants is spreading COVID-19 to countries that send the largest number of migrants to the United States. It is a startling consequence to the mass expulsion and deportation of migrants from across Latin America.
“With these ongoing deportations,” she concludes, “the Trump Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, and ICE are not just endangering the lives of the men, women, and children on these flights, they are also potentially condemning entire communities to death.”
According to data compiled by the Center for Economic Policy Research, more than 232 deportation flights have been carried out to eleven countries since the beginning of the lockdown measures across Latin America. The destinations, including Guatemala, Honduras, and Haiti, are all plagued by corruption and have limited investment in their public health sector. This adds to concerns that continued deportations could lead to an explosion of cases in these countries.
On May 11, a flight chartered by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) originated in Alexandria, Louisiana, destined for Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The scheduled deportation, which included at least five Haitian migrants who tested positive for COVID-19, caused outcry from Haitian migrant advocates. (At the last moment, the five migrants were removed from the flight.)
“For those who are still on this flight, including families with very young children, these deportations are cruel, reckless, unconscionable and despicable,” Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat wrote in an op-ed for The Miami Herald criticizing the continued deportation of Haitians during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“With these ongoing deportations,” she concludes, “the Trump Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, and ICE are not just endangering the lives of the men, women, and children on these flights, they are also potentially condemning entire communities to death.”
At least three other migrants deported to Haiti have already tested positive for the coronavirus. The Haitian government has requested that the United States halt deportations until the pandemic is under control. Reuters reported that two dozen Colombians deported in April tested positive for the virus as well, and that two Mexicans deported from the United States have also tested positive.
Sister Nyzelle Dondé with the Catholic Church’s Pastoral of Human Mobility in Honduras tells The Progressive that Honduras, which has received more than 3,200 deported migrants since March, has not registered any cases of COVID-19 among deportees.
The first known case of a deported migrant testing positive for COVID-19 occurred in Guatemala following a deportation flight from Alexandria, Louisiana. In total, at least four migrants deported on that flight have now tested positive for the virus. Since then, more than 100 migrants deported to Guatemala have tested positive for COVID-19 either upon arrival or within days after arrival.
Cases of COVID-19 have run rampant in ICE-run migrant detention centers, with nearly 900 of the more than 30,000 migrants in detention centers testing positive for COVID-19 as of May 12, although testing only began after cases were publicly identified among deportees.
“[The United States] is an exportation of the virus,” Juan José Hurtado, the director of the Migrants rights advocacy organization Pop No’j, tells The Progressive. “The holding conditions of the United States and in Mexico amplify the spread.”
The Trump Administration’s policy of expulsion has meant that migrants who arrive at the U.S. border are sent back to Mexico, where they are further put at risk.
The increase in cases has led to at least three temporary suspensions of deportation flights to Guatemala, as ICE implements testing protocols to guarantee the health of deported migrants. In spite of this, at least one migrant deported on May 4 tested positive for the virus. Another four Guatemalan migrants deported from Mexico also tested positive for COVID-19.
Early on, deported migrants were given simple health screenings and returned to their hometowns where they were put in quarantine. As Hurtado points out, this put other families at risk of infection due to the fact that families often share a single room or small space.
During a meeting with Guatemalan congressional representatives on May 11, Vice Health Minister Erick Muñoz stated that seventy-four migrants had tested positive the week prior. But this was quickly walked back by the Health Minister Hugo Monroy and the Health Ministry, causing confusion.
Faced with the threat of further spreading the coronavirus, Doctors Without Borders, the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, and Pop No’j, along with many other advocates and human rights organizations, have demanded that the United States suspend all deportations during the pandemic, especially as the United States has by far the highest percentage of the total number of global confirmed COVID-19 cases.
“The United States must immediately stop all deportations to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Haiti, to halt the spread of the new coronavirus,” wrote Doctors Without Borders in a press statement.
During the pandemic, ICE has stated that they are taking measures to prevent the spread of the virus. But cases of COVID-19 have run rampant in ICE-run migrant detention centers, with nearly 900 of the more than 30,000 migrants in detention centers testing positive for COVID-19 as of May 12, although testing only began after cases were publicly identified among deportees.
Senate Democrats have called for a federal watchdog review of the conditions in ICE detention facilities.
The threat of the deportation of migrants testing positive for COVID-19 would exasperate the already crippled health care systems across Latin America.
Guatemala faces a deteriorating situation in the country’s capability to respond to the pandemic. By May 11, the country’s field hospital in Guatemala City had already reached 80 percent capacity, and medical professionals were protesting the lack of payment and protective materials.
The day prior, May 10, the Guatemalan Human Rights Ombudsman’s office denounced conditions in the Villa Nueva Hospital, the national hospital that is specialized to respond to cases of COVID-19. In its report, the office found that the hospital lacked medical personnel and medicines needed to respond to the pandemic.
On May 13, the Vice Minister of Hospitals German Scheel told congressional members that the Guatemalan government had only utilized 1 percent of the 600 million Quetzales (about $78 million) that had been made available to respond to the pandemic.
Concerns over the Guatemalan health care system’s capability to respond to the pandemic have been raised previously, especially in rural communities.
“The public health care system in Guatemala has always been poor,” Hurtado tells The Progressive. “The priority in Guatemala has always been the military.”
Making matters worse is a financial system fraught with corruption, clientelism, and lack of access to banking services. The country has also seen a sharp increase in hunger, leading many to go into the streets with white flags requesting aid.
“The problems are not new,” Hurtado says, “but this crisis has made them evident.”