Month: March 2020

A Buzzfeed report spotlighted the foreign detainees who are most vulnerable to China’s epidemic::

The filing in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington identified nine immigrants in custody at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, including a 48-year-old Jamaican woman with cholangitis, a progressive liver disease, who has been told she has only 10 to 12 years to live. The advocates said the woman was “critically vulnerable to COVID-19 because of her autoimmune disease and diabetes.”

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“ICE has the responsibility to protect the safety of all who are in immigration detention. As a first step, it should immediately release our clients who have already been identified by the federal government as being most at risk because of this epidemic,” said Matt Adams, legal director for the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, which joined the ACLU in the lawsuit. “If it waits to react to worst-case scenarios once they take hold, it will already be too late.”

The virus is already forcing border agencies to screen deportees before they are sent back to cooperating countries, including Guatemala and El Salvador. Deportees with high temperatures are kept off the returns flights out of concern that the deportees might carry the disease from U.S. detention centers into the vulnerable countries and possibly wreck the countries’ cooperation.

The Department of Homeland Security responded to Buzzfeed.com:

“Detainees who meet CDC criteria for epidemiologic risk of exposure to COVID-19 are housed separately from the general population. ICE places detainees with fever and/or respiratory symptoms in a single medical housing room, or in a medical airborne infection isolation room specifically designed to contain biological agents, such as COVID-19,” ICE said in a statement describing its process for isolating detainees who potentially have the disease. “This prevents the spread of the agent to other individuals and the general public. ICE transports individuals with moderate to severe symptoms, or those who require higher levels of care or monitoring, to appropriate hospitals with expertise in high risk care.”

Pro-migration Democrats are also urging the release of many migrants into the United States. “We urge you to prioritize the health and safety of those in your custody and employment by reducing detention numbers in a safe and swift manner, including by expeditiously placing children in homes and releasing non-priority detainees,” said the March 13 letter signed by the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Rep. Joaquin Castro, (D-Texas).

On March 15, Buzzfeed also spotlighted an effort by progressives to shutter the packed immigration courts for several weeks:

The union representing Immigration and Customs Enforcement prosecutors joined immigration judges and lawyers in calling for the immediate shutdown of courts across the country to curb the spread of the coronavirus, an unprecedented alliance that signals the deep anxiety that has spread through all facets of the US immigration system.

“These are not normal times,” Fanny Behar Ostrow, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 511, which represents ICE prosecutors, told BuzzFeed News. “This is a real crisis. We all have the same interests and the same concerns.” Ostrow is an ICE prosecutor in Miami.

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Courtrooms can be cramped as judges, attorneys, family members, experts and others gather for hearings every day. These conditions, said Ostrow, are particularly concerning for ICE prosecutors who in recent days have been panicked, describing people coughing and appearing sick continuing to come to courtrooms.

Some state and local governments have begun releasing U.S. criminals amid the virus. WHJL.com reported:

Administrative Judge Brendan Sheehan told the I-TEAM earlier this week that inmates are already in poor health, and it wouldn’t take much for the coronavirus to spread wildly behind bars.

Sheehan also said almost any kind of inmate could be considered.

“You gotta remember, the goal of this is to protect the community and the safety of the inmates. If someone’s a serious violent person, well, we’re using our discretion to make sure the community’s safe also,” he told the I-TEAM on Thursday.

10M+ illegals are mixed in with 315M Americans.
Amid the Wuhan virus, some Dems argue for cutback of immig enforcement.
Migrants should be treated alongside Americans to minimize civic risks — but w/o a cutback, says enforcement activist Mark Krikorian.https://t.co/xWUOrcf0oh

— Neil Munro (@NeilMunroDC) March 10, 2020

At the same time the Communist regime is disappointed not all countries are paying attention, increasing the possibility that the epidemic will get worse, the newspaper said:

Despite the unmistakable seriousness of the situation, some countries have tried to play down the risks, and the measures they have taken are not only insufficient to control the pandemic at home, but also not enough to prevent themselves from being the source of virus transmission to other countries.

Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi told U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday attempts by U.S. politicians to denigrate China’s efforts to curb the Wuhan virus would not succeed, and could lead to retaliation.

His appeal drew a sharp response from Pompeo who conveyed “strong objections” to Yang over what the State Department described as “PRC efforts to shift blame for COVID-19 to the United States,” as Breitbart News reported.

Over the past few weeks, Chinese officials and state-managed social media accounts began floating theories that the coronavirus began in the United States and was brought to Wuhan by U.S. Army soldiers visiting for the Military World Games in October.

Thursday’s allegations from the Chinese Foreign Ministry that the Wuhan coronavirus originated in America and was spread to China by the U.S. military was not a fluke or an example of a rogue spokesman running his mouth. https://t.co/1Jt5KSCYpo

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) March 14, 2020

On Monday a major Chinese Communist Party paper, the Global Times, stated again – without evidence – the virus might have been developed in the U.S. Army laboratory in Fort Detrick, Maryland, before being secretly released to harm an innocent and entirely helpless mainland Chinese populace.

Follow Simon Kent on Twitter: Follow @SunSimonKent or e-mail to: skent@breitbart.com

In 2019, Italy and China signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly promote the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Projects related to this initiative have expanded shipping trade in the Mediterranean region, greatly increasing development opportunities for major Italian ports. Over three million Chinese tourists visited Italy in 2018. Two of the first three cases of coronavirus in Italy are believed to have originated from Chinese tourists in January. This fact caused Italy to close transport links with China and also spurred anti-Chinese sentiment within the Italian population.

Andrea Delmastro Delle Vedove, an Italian politician from the national-conservative Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) party, stated on Monday that his country’s current crisis demonstrates the problem with interdependence on China.

“Of course, the coronavirus opens a disturbing scenario, it tells us that interdependence on China can be a problem not only from an economic or industrial etc. point of view, but also from a national security, national health prophylaxis,” Vedove said.

Vedove, a member of the foreign affairs commission of his party, voiced a view held by an increasing number of Italians, as they point to China and its ties to Italy as the root cause of the calamity.

Despite Italy’s apparently growing resentment toward China for bringing the coronavirus to the nation – a “demon, born in China” as Vedove put it – Italian President Sergio Mattarella was quick to signal his solidarity with the communist nation, visiting a school in Rome in February with largely Chinese students in an effort to show friendship with China. Chinese dictator Xi Jinping later thanked Matharella in a message read by China’s ambassador to Rome, Li Junhua, at a concert at the presidential palace a few weeks later. “This is another concrete gesture that shows real friendship is seen in moments of need and I am deeply moved,” said Jinping.

“Our crazy Mayor, as he’s deciding to close all the gyms, because they’re not safe … goes to the gym to workout,” New York radio host Mark Simone tweeted on Monday, linking to a report by the New York Post. He is far from the only one shocked by the decision. De Blasio’s own people have called him out.

“He went to the f–king gym? Jesus!” said a former staff member. Another told the Post, “every New Yorker’s regular routine has been put on hold. His should be, too. Get to work. Set an example. This is embarrassing.” Yet another questioned his unwillingness to adhere to CDC guidelines, telling the paper:

Didn’t the CDC recommend no gatherings of 50 people or more? … Will he be counting the amount of people there and leaving if it’s over 49? If we’re supposed to be social distancing, then what does that even mean if he gets to play by his own rules? Leaders are supposed to set by example. What kind of example does this set?

Also, why is he at the gym and not hunkered down 24/7 working on this? It’s a pandemic, and people are dying. Stunning. How many people have to die before he stops getting chauffeured to the gym is my question. What’s the appropriate number of deaths before he finds it uncouth?

De Blasio’s press secretary, Freddi Goldstein, defended the mayor’s risky decision. “The YMCA has been a huge part of his and his family’s life, like it has been for a lot of New Yorkers. It’s clear that’s about to change and before that, the mayor wanted to visit a place that keeps him grounded one last time,” Goldstein said. “That doesn’t change the fact that he is working around the clock to ensure the safety of New Yorkers. After today, gyms will close and he will no longer be visiting the YMCA for the foreseeable future.”

After his 12-mile trip to his favorite gym, de Blasio finally decided it was time to make sure the children of New York had adequate protection. “It is time to take more drastic measures,” de Blasio said during an update at City Hall Sunday evening, announcing that schools would be closed until at least April 20. “This is a decision I have taken with no joy whatsoever.”

But NYC Council Member Keith Powers implored de Blasio to live by his own words. “As elected officials, we’re expected to lead and set an example for the public,” he wrote. “We’re in a public health crisis, where gyms and restaurants are closing. Our message to everyone is to stay home. Mr. Mayor, we need you to lead by example.”