View this email in your browser

Unsanitized: The COVID-19 Report for Sept. 15, 2020

Appeals Court Ruling Could Trigger Mass Deportation
The Trump administration can go forward on revoking temporary protected
status

 

A courthouse for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
(Jeff Chiu/AP Photo)

First Response

The most shocking news yesterday came from a whistleblower named Dawn
Wooten, a nurse at the Irwin County Detention Center, an ICE facility
operated by private prison company LaSalle Corrections. Wooten, in a
complaint to the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland
Security, described a train of horrors

at the detention center, including failures to inform detainees and
staff about COVID-19 outbreaks, lack of protective equipment, a refusal
to test detainees showing symptoms, and retaliation against those who
protest these decisions. The most disturbing allegation

involved doctors at the facility performing numerous hysterectomies on
detainees for unknown or questionable reasons. ICE didn't really deny
any of this in their statement, just saying that "unproven"
allegations should be met with skepticism.

The immigration Gestapo engaging in medical experiments of subjects
under their control is unforgivable and wrong. But another ICE-related
operation given tentative approval yesterday could send hundreds of
thousands of people into COVID-related danger.

A three-judge panel on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday
that the Trump administration could go forward

with its plans to remove Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from
immigrants living in the U.S. from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and
Sudan. This was the "shithole countries
"
case, where plaintiffs argued that Trump's remark, which was in
reference to Haiti and El Salvador and why we would want people from
those places in the country, showed racial animus that violated the
equal protection clause. The judges deemed the statement offensive but
said it had no link to the decision to wind down TPS (he literally said
"Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out," and then set a policy
to take them out). The 2-1 ruling fell along party lines.

Read all of our Unsanitized reports here

Click to Support The American Prospect

If the Supreme Court backs up the ruling that revoking TPS is
unreviewable, then 300,000 non-citizens and 200,000 U.S. children of
non-citizens could be shipped back to their home countries after 120
days of the final court order. That would be as early as next March, if
the Supreme Court refused to take up the case. Children would have to
decide whether to separate from their parents or go to a country they
have never known. (A separate legal agreement would also implicate
another close to 100,000 immigrants from Honduras and Nepal with this
ruling.)

A deal with the Salvadoran government would enable immigrants from that
country to stay in the U.S. up to a year after the ruling, in exchange
for the government blocking asylum seekers headed to the U.S. who pass
through El Salvador. They would have until next November, at the
earliest. Obviously that's beyond the timeframe of the election, and
Joe Biden has vowed to extend TPS to these immigrants, some of whom have
been in the country for decades. So that's another set of stakes in an
election with a shelf full.

One of the reasons for TPS protection, in addition to a home country
under armed conflict, a natural disaster, or some other factor that
makes a guarantee of safe return impossible, is an epidemic. According
to Johns Hopkins , there have been
8,400 cases and 219 deaths in Haiti; 27,000 cases and 792 deaths in El
Salvador; 4,800 cases and 144 deaths in Nicaragua; and 13,000 cases and
836 deaths in Sudan. (Honduras has suffered 68,000 cases and over 2,000
deaths, while Nepal has 56,000 cases and 371 deaths.)

These are almost certainly an undercount, given the state of health
systems in the developing world. We have seen examples of large
uncounted dead in developing countries. In addition, global health and
development has absolutely cratered

during the pandemic, with poverty rising and vaccinations falling. An
influx of immigrants from the United States, site of the worst outbreak
in the world, could worsen and exacerbate the epidemic in these
countries.

In addition, over 100,000 TPS holders have served in essential
workplaces

during COVID-19, according to the plaintiffs. "Many TPS holders from
these four countries have been on the frontlines of our nation's
response with little to no relief and living under the fear of
deportation," said Hans Van de Weerd, Vice President of Resettlement,
Asylum, and Integration at the International Rescue Committee. "Every
TPS holder deserves safety and stability."

Maybe by next March or next November, COVID-19 will be a memory,
enabling safe passage abroad. But that's unlikely, especially in the
developing world. Vaccine production will roll out slowly and almost
certainly to richer countries first. Bill Gates is talking about hoping
that the pandemic "doesn't stretch past 2022
."
Inevitably, countries like Haiti and El Salvador will be among the last
to get true protections for its citizens. So sending back TPS holders
will absolutely put them at risk.

A second chance could come in the form another ruling yesterday that
Chad Wolf, the acting homeland security chief, is operating in his job
illegally
,
voiding his decisions. But the TPS decisions were put in place by his
predecessor Kirstjen Nielsen, so that's probably a dead end.

Health is absolutely a factor in whether to extend TPS, both here and
abroad. We will suffer with fewer frontline workers and the workers will
suffer by being pushed out. They may even be carriers, and cause
infections in the countries to which they are sent. It's not like the
U.S. is exactly safe ground from the coronavirus, but in the time frames
under issue here, this would almost certainly consign hundreds of
thousands of people to a worse outcome. And all for the extreme racial
animus of Stephen Miller and Donald Trump. Again, the election stakes
are high.

Support Independent, Fact-Checked Journalism

Odds and Sods

At the Prospect today, Bob Kuttner has a good piece

on how the Treasury Department is as much to blame as the Federal
Reserve for denying aid to smaller businesses and state and local
governments. The bailout programs are really a team sport.

Also, yesterday Brittany Gibson singled out Virginia

as one state making voting easier rather than harder during the
pandemic.

An update on my piece from last week

about business interruption insurance: there's now a global component
,
as policyholders in Australia, France, and the UK challenge their
denials.

As always, please offer your comments, tips, and perspectives via email
.

We Depend on Your Donations

Days Without a Bailout Oversight Chair

17
3.

We Can't Do This Without You

Today I Learned

* Late to this, but Greg Jaffe's portrait of a squatter motel

near Disney World is cinematic, brilliant, and tough to read.
(Washington Post)

* Another bad court ruling disqualifies

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf's coronavirus restrictions. (Allentown
Morning Call)

* That executive order to reopen meatpacking plants was written by the
meatpacking industry
.
(ProPublica)

* Parents whose kids are attending in-person schooling can no longer
take paid leave
,
according to new federal coronavirus guidelines. (19th News)

* Trump is incredibly underwater

on his COVID response, and that's the story of the election, so draw
your own conclusions. (ABC News)

* An arthritis drug is part of a cocktail that's helping patients
recover faster

from the virus. (Wall Street Journal)

* Downballot Democrats starting to knock on doors again
,
as Biden's team resists canvassing in the pandemic. (Politico)

* Airlines are selling "flights to nowhere
"
that take off and land at the same location, so if you want all the
discomfort of flying without actually going anywhere, have at it. (CNBC)

**Click the social links below to share this newsletter**

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

YOUR TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION SUPPORTS INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM

Copyright (C) 2020 The American Prospect. All rights reserved.
_________________

Sent to [email protected]

Unsubscribe:
[link removed]

The American Prospect, Inc., 1225 I Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC xxxxxx, United States