The U.S. plans to deport Haitians on Monday who say they have tested positive for COVID-19 ― a move that would put both fellow airline passengers and people in their homeland at risk.
A manifest for the scheduled deportation flight, obtained by HuffPost, shows 100 passengers. Two of those listed, Stephane Etienne and Mackendy Calice, confirmed to HuffPost that they have tested positive for the coronavirus, and three others listed on the manifest also have tested positive, according to U.S.-based human rights group the Institute for Justice and Democracy In Haiti. The Miami Herald reported on the case on Friday.
These removals of COVID-positive detainees would align with the Trump administration’s deportation priorities, but not with pleas from foreign governments to stop deporting people with the virus during the pandemic. In the past, some Haitian deportees have tested positive once they’ve been returned to the country. A Haitian official told HuffPost in April that further removals was “putting an additional burden on all of our fragile systems.”
The latest planned removals show that Immigration and Customs Enforcement may be deporting people it knows for certain are COVID-19-positive ― a move that can spread the virus and strain the health care system in other countries.
ICE did not respond to a request for comment on the removals.
Etienne and Calice, the two Haitian men who said they tested positive for COVID-19, were in “total lockdown” inside Pine Prairie Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center in Louisiana, Calice said. They’re isolated from the detainee general population in a special area for those who test positive for the virus. Etienne’s coronavirus tests have twice come back positive, he said. Calice, who said he hasn’t been allowed to go outside in more than a month, tested positive on April 26.
They said they were surprised to learn that they, along with three dormmates who also tested positive, were scheduled to be deported to Haiti on Monday.
No comments:
Post a Comment