Senate Democrats call on administration to provide COVID-19 testing for migrants before deportation

The Hill ^ | 05 02 2020 | Marty Johnson

[yesthatjallen]

A group of Senate Democrats on Saturday sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf requesting that the Trump administration to provide COVID-19 testing for migrants before they're deported from the country.

The letter was spearheaded by Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and signed by 13 additional senators, including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.).

According to the letter, the Trump administration has "deported dozens of Guatemalan, Mexican, and Haitian nationals who tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival in their home countries."

The senators also noted that despite 30,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees across the country, the agency had administered only about 1,000 tests as of April 29.

They also called for the administration to mandate coronavirus testing for all migrants before they are transferred from the United States. They argued testing should be administered to ensure that "migrants who test positive receive proper medical treatment."

SNIP

[yesthatjallen]

Remember when we used to deny entry to the United States to people who had a communicable diseases?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Now we let them flood in without any medical testing but have to do that medical testing when we throw them out! Makes perfect sense to me.

If they are testing positive upon arrival at their destinations, then it sounds like the system is working just fine.

There is NOTHING these rat bastard Dems won’t do to help the invaders.

[Seruzawa]

FO babykillers.

[Raycpa]

So they deliberately expose themselves and their children?

[funfan]

They just want to inflate the number of cases they do not really care about those people.

[lewislynn]

Ok, so test them and deport them no matter the results.

How do we know they weren't positive before they got here?

If they're positive, quarantine them to the congressional offices. There's no one there now anyway.

[Mr. Rabbit]

Nope. Mexico can test them upon re-importation back home.

[datura]

Democrats always all for anything that will harm America.

[cdcdawg]

Nothing to worry about. Using their strong position of having the majority in the Senate, in addition to the White House and a Supreme Court majority, Republicans will negotiate this down to only testing the “migrants” who say they don’t exactly feel 100%. Yes, sarcasm, mostly.

[RAldrich]

But hasn’t there been a lot of hollering about a shortage of testing kits and lab capacity to process the tests?

Mandatory tests for illegal immigrants but a shortage of tests for Americans? Figures.

[txrefugee]

Whose fault is it that these people, who have no business here, have crowded into “safe houses,” obeying none of our laws? Send them all home.

[gibsonguy]

Exactly.

[max americana]

What for? Just deport their sorry asses!

[eyeamok]

Trump should respond with a letter Authorizing each of these Senators to Personally go to the Border and Give the Tests.

[reformedliberal]

They just want to inflate the number of cases they do not really care about those people.
_________________________________________________
Testing positive does not equate to needing any medical intervention.

This is another attempt to overwhelm the medical system in selected areas.

[Pollster1]

I’m okay with testing these criminals on their way out. Send the results to their home countries - with a bill for the testing and deportation costs. Let’s test and deport all illegals. No exceptions.

[Bernard]

The scene in Godfather II where young Vito Corelone is sitting on a bed looking at the Statue of Liberty while he is being detained while waiting for entry into the US struck me when I first saw it, and even more so after our country spent most of the 20th century eradicating or mitigating most of the diseases known to man within our borders, then has spent the last 30 years or so letting all of those diseases walk back in across the southern border so Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer could get reasonable rates to get their lawns mowed.

(Probably the longest run-on sentence I ever wrote. This topic really gets me cranked up.)

[funfan]

Would they have to be quarantined if they tested positive before being deported?

[dennisw]

>>>>>>According to the letter, the Trump administration has “deported dozens of Guatemalan, Mexican, and Haitian nationals who tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival in their home countries.”>>>>>

For shits and giggles give them all an AIDS test on the way out and tell them all it was positive. Fun ensues when they touch down in their third world Guatemalan (or whatever) hell hole homeland.

[reformedliberal]

Would they have to be quarantined if they tested positive before being deported?
_____________________________________
I’m sure proggies would say yes. Then, any severe disease/death could be blamed on cruel Republican quarantine orders/conditions.

No one allowed entry in the first place would be a solution.