Thousands deported during coronavirus pandemic

By Elena Granda '21

After the coronavirus outbreak began, the U.S. government deported over seventeen thousand individuals in March alone. The U.S. continues to deport illegal immigrants even as the stay at home order has been put into place. Many are concerned about the repercussions that the government’s actions may have for both the third-world countries to which many immigrants are deported, and for the many unaccompanied minors who will now experience a new risk of being deported without proper legal provisions.

In late March, the U.S. enacted a new order that states the U.S. is able to deport and or turn away foreigners at the border if they are suspected to have the virus. The goal of this order is to prevent the spread of the virus through detention facilities for illegal immigrants in the U.S. according to CBS News; however, many activists see this new order as merely a means to limit immigration, especially because it overrides U.S. asylum laws and international refugee treaties.

Democratic members of the Senate sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security which charged the department with, “exploiting the Covid-19 pandemic by claiming new, sweeping powers to summarily expel large, unknown numbers of individuals arriving at our border in clear contravention of existing federal laws,” according to the New York Times.

On April 28, President Trump threatened to refuse federal healthcare support for COVID-19 in sanctuary cities that did not change their immigration policies. At a meeting focused on protecting businesses during the coronavirus outbreak, President Trump addressed federal funding stating, “If it’s COVID-related, I guess we can talk about it, but we’d want certain things also, including sanctuary-city adjustments.” While immigration still remains a partisan issue, both Republican and Democrtic representatives are requesting funding from across the country to deal with the economic setbacks the states are currently experiencing.

In many cases, immigrants are being deported to impoverished countries where they will not be able to access adequate medical care if they test positive for COVID-19. Both Guatemalan Health Minister Hugo Monroy and Foreign Minister Pedro Brolo stated that several of the individuals who were recently deported from the US have tested positive for the coronavirus and are responsible for exacerbating the outbreak in Guatemala.

Out of the total 17, 965 deportations in March, ninety-five minors were deported to Guatemala unaccompanied by parental guardians. According to the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement, children have certain protections under the law that adult migrants do not; however, recently, in response to the coronavirus, unaccompanied children have been rapidly deported without being granted their legal rights as minors. One of these legal rights holds that unaccompanied minors are able to have their asylum applications decided by U.S. Citizenship and Immigartion Services instead of having to wait for their application to be brought before an immigration judge.

The deportation of unaccompanied minors is deeply concerning because of the dangers the minors face after they are released from U.S. custody. Michelle Brane of the Women’s Refugee Commission told the New York Times, “When you send kids back without any precautions, without any screening, you create a situation in which traffickers, smugglers and people who want to take advantage of them are literally waiting for them in these border towns.” Asylum seekers, as well, are especially at risk of returning to areas where drug or human trafficking are prevelent.

Anthony Enrique, the director of Unaccompanied Minors Program at Catholic Charities in New York told the New York Times, “When you put all these pieces together, whether consciously or not, it starts to look like the administration is railroading these detained children into deportation as quickly as possible.”

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