We already knew that the Trump regime is the vilest administration this country has ever had to endure, but this raises his evil to another level.

Central American leaders have pleaded with Trump to stop removals and end deportations that would spread the virus to their impoverished nations that have fragile health systems, drought, and violence in the region.

A single deportation flight to Guatemala by the U.S. government saw more than 75% of the migrants later test positive for novel coronavirus, the country's health minister told reporters on Tuesday. Guatemala, along with El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico, has urged the U.S. to halt removals and deportations or take other steps to stop the virus' spread from the U.S., now the epicenter of the pandemic. But last Friday, President Donald Trump instead signed a memorandum to authorize sanctions against any country that doesn't accept removals from the U.S. -- a threat to all four countries, despite concerns about the ability of their fragile health systems to handle severe outbreaks. The Guatemalan government has said that so far, four Guatemalans deported from the U.S. have tested positive for COVID-19, according to The Associated Press. But Health Minister Hugo Monroy suggested Tuesday that a recent spike in cases was because of deportations from the U.S. On one flight, more than 75% of migrants later tested positive, he said, adding he couldn't specify because of security reasons. He also suggested that between 50% and 75% of all migrants deported from the U.S. recently have tested positive, without specifying what time frame he was talking about or providing a total number, but he later walked that back, saying he was referring to one flight.

x NYT: article on Coronavirus & deportation of infected migrants



Touches on:



expelling children



CBP/ICE facilities as hot spots (credulous abt gov numbers)



treatment of returned migrants



CDC investigation of numbers in Guatemala



headline erroneously implies practice ended pic.twitter.com/67z6JDwTvl — Mara Keire Ã°ÂÂÂ· (@MaraKeire) April 19, 2020

From NPR:

As the COVID-19 crisis spread to Central America in the last month, the governments of Guatemala and other Central American countries had requested temporary suspension of the deportation flights. On Tuesday, Guatemala's Foreign Minister Pedro Brolo confirmed flights of returned migrants would continue, saying, "We have begun ... negotiations with the Embassy and government of the United States to improve conditions of those being returned from the United States ... to be able to guarantee diminished risk they [will] arrive infected by COVID-19." Guatemalan news reports indicated the pressure of sanctions was being placed on Central American governments to resume the return flights of deportees. Meanwhile, church and refugee groups like Refugees International called for migrants to be tested before being deported back to their home countries. The Guatemalan Episcopal Conference, an umbrella organization of religious groups, on Wednesday strongly criticized both the United States and Mexico for continuing to send migrants back during the current public health crisis. Part of the CEG's statement read: "We raise our voice and ask the governments of the U.S. and Mexico in the name of a suffering people to stop the deportations." A spokesperson for ICE, U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the health and safety of migrants under ICE care "is one of our highest priorities," and "Every ICE detainee must pass a health screening by a flight medical provider or they will be denied boarding."

Health screening does not test for coronavirus, emphasis mine.

Reuters provides an update from a few hours ago.

An indigenous priest wears a mask as he performs a ceremony to ask for protection against COVID-19, at the Parroquial ded Santo Tomas church in the municipality of Chichicastenango, Guatemala, on March 28, 2020. 1

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei said on Sunday a total of 50 migrants deported by the United States to Guatemala have tested positive for coronavirus, including 14 sent to the Central American nation on a Tuesday flight. Most of the deportees that have tested positive for coronavirus arrived from the United States on a Monday flight. Four others who tested positive arrived in March. In total, Guatemala registered 32 new confirmed cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, Giammattei said, bring the total to 289 cases and 7 deaths.

x Important piece on ICE tactics that are furthering the spread of #COVID in detention centers and beyond



Timeline points to ICE spreading COVID from AZ detention centers to Guatemala through deportations https://t.co/9qx5aNSbqP pic.twitter.com/SKcSHT8nxz — Jesse Franzblau (@JFranzblau) April 19, 2020

Instead of testing deportees for the contagion before returning them to Guatemala, the incubus instead ordered the CDC to the impoverished nation to study cases that are erupting on the ground.

Central American’s deserve not to be purposely exposed to COVID. In a just world, Trump would be removed from office and sent to the Haque. Where is the media? Where are the editorials demanding his resignation? My god.

The deportation and holding camps are crowded, unsanitary and are run by people that apparently don’t have a moral bone in their bodies. Shame on them.