This is the second communication from NIAID requesting that you file the progress report for the above-referenced grant [5R01AI110964] that was due no later than April 15, 2016. Please submit the delinquent report by May 12, 2016…. [P]lease be advised that continued late submission of your non-competing grant progress report and any subsequently requested documentation will result in a reduction of time and/or funds for this grant.

To analyze which viruses were a potential public health risk, we managed to cultivate three strains of SARSr-CoVs from bat feces… We used the genetic codes of some of the other viruses we found in bats and inserted spike protein genes of those viruses (the proteins that attach to cells) into the cultured viruses. By doing this experiment we showed that other viruses may also be able to infect human cells, and were able to do this safely without the need to culture large amounts of virus…. This work proves that there is a clear and present danger for future emergence of novel SARS-like viruses in people.
 

Wuhan Institute of Virology, China;
Institute of Pathogen Biology, China;
Duke-NUS, Singapore;
San Pya Clinic, Burma;
Institut Pasteur du Cambodge, Cambodia;
Primate Research Center at Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia;
Conservation Medicine, Ltd, Malaysia;
King Chulagongkorn Memorial Hospital, Thailand;
Hanoi Agricultural University, Vietnam;National Animal Health Laboratory, Laos;
East China Normal University, China, is listed as a “consultant.”

[W]e have concerns that the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which previously served as a subrecipient of the Project, had not satisfied safety requirements that applied to its subawards with EcoHealth, and that EcoHealth had not satisfied its obligations to monitor the activities of its subrecipient to ensure compliance.”
 

This termination of a funded relationship with the [Wuhan Institute of Virology] makes it extraordinarily difficult and more likely impossible to provide the information requested about an autonomous foreign organization – as would also be the case for a domestic one – that our organization neither works with currently, nor has control over.
 

For us to continue our analyses, we will need to receive and review WIV’s [Wuhan Institute of Virology] records validating expenditures specific to R01AI100964 … that WIV submitted to you. As a reminder, subawardees are required to have a financial management system that includes records that identify adequately the source and application of funds for federally-funded activities.

***

We will also need to see subaward agreements, subawardee audit reports, subawardee safety monitoring documents, subawardee progress reports submitted to you, and subawardee financial and accounting records for two other NIH EcoHealth Alliance grants.

We are also writing to notify you that a review of our records for R01AI100964 [the Wuhan bat project] indicates that EcoHealth Alliance, Inc. is out of compliance with requirements to submit the following reports that are outlined in the NIHGPS [National Institutes of Health Grants Policy Statement]: the Federal Financial Report … and the Interim Research Performance Progress Report …
 

Days after an influential open borders group ordered the government to “promptly develop and implement” a policy to protect illegal immigrants involved in labor disputes from deportation, the Biden administration has obliged. This month the Department of Labor (DOL) issued a new measure, drafted in English and Spanish, offering immigration related prosecutorial discretion for undocumented workers involved in labor disputes with their U.S. employers. Created at the request of the Los Angeles-based Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, the policy directs illegal alien workers to contact the agency if they fear supervisors will try to get authorities to deport them for reporting workplace abuse. The DOL will then contact the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to request the undocumented employee be protected from deportation, according to the measure.

“DOL’s mission and effective enforcement depends on the cooperation of workers,” the recently issued guidance states. “However, vulnerable workers who lack work authorization or sufficiently “portable” immigration status are often reluctant to report violations, engage with government enforcement agencies, or otherwise exercise their rights.” The document continues by offering the following example; undocumented workers who experience labor law violations may fear that cooperating with an investigation will result in the disclosure of their immigration status or that of family members, or that it will result in immigration-based retaliation from their employers and adverse immigration consequences for themselves or their family. “As a result, both workers and the Department face barriers to equitable and effective enforcement of workplace rights and protections, and the many employers that adhere to labor and employment laws face unfair competition.”

Undocumented workers experiencing a labor dispute are instructed to submit a statement of interest to the DOL in support of a request to DHS for immigration-related prosecutorial discretion, the new guidance says. Requesters should include a description of the labor dispute, any retaliation or threats experienced by workers, a description of how fear of potential immigration-related retaliation or other immigration enforcement in the future is likely to deter workers from reporting violations related to the labor dispute or otherwise cooperating with DOL. The agency will assess each request by considering several factors, including whether DHS’s use of immigration-related prosecutorial discretion would support DOL’s interest in holding labor law violators accountable and whether immigration enforcement of witnesses or victims could impede DOL’s ability to enforce labor laws or provide all available remedies within its jurisdiction. The agency will also consider the “likelihood that immigration enforcement could be an instrument used to undermine DOL’s enforcement of laws in the geographic area or industry and/or give rise to further immigration-based retaliation.”

In a press release celebrating the new policy the DOL explains that to carry out the laws it enforces, workers must feel free to participate in investigations and proceedings without fear of retaliation or consequences related to their immigration status. “The department has long supported DHS’ use of prosecutorial discretion – on a case-by-case basis – for certain workers subjected to abusive and exploitative labor practices,” the DOL writes, adding that “for decades, the department has memorialized this relationship through agreements with immigration officials.” As an example the agency lists an agreement between the DOL and DHS to work together to ensure that their respective civil worksite enforcement activities do not conflict and recognizing that effective enforcement of labor law is essential to ensure proper wages and working conditions for all workers regardless of immigration status.

It appears that the DOL issued its new policy to protect illegal immigrant workers in response to demands by the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, an open-borders group that claims to protect the civil, constitutional, and human rights of immigrants, refugees, children, prisoners, and the poor. In the recent letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and DOL Secretary Martin Walsh the group asks the administration to increase the willingness of immigrant workers to assert their labor and civil rights and ensure immigration enforcement does not become a tool of unscrupulous employers. “This letter is to provide support for the effort to promptly develop and implement a more robust policy aimed at encouraging immigrant workers to report labor law violations and cooperate in their investigation and to extend temporary protection from arrest or removal to immigrant workers engaged in labor disputes,” the group writes. Within days the administration implemented the new policy.