theintercept--2020-06-26--Scientists Pin Blame for Some Coronavirus Deaths on Air Pollution, PFAS, and Other Chemicals

into the coronavirus pandemic , it ’ s already clear that environmental pollution is responsible for some portion of the hundreds of thousands of Covid-19 deaths around the world .
Now scientists are trying to pinpoint how exactly industrial chemicals make people more susceptible to the coronavirus and how much of the blame for the devastation wrought by the new coronavirus should be laid at the feet of the industry that produces those chemicals .
The link between Covid-19 and air pollution is particularly strong .
A study set to publish in July linked six air pollutants in 120 Chinese @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Researchers in Italy have also shown that long-term exposure to air pollution is “ significantly correlated with cases of Covid-19 ” in up to 71 provinces in that country .
And a study that used data from California , set to publish in Environmental Research in August , showed that the air pollutants PM2.5 , PM 10 , nitrogen dioxide , carbon monoxide , and sulfur dioxide were associated with coronavirus infections .
The authors of that study concluded that reducing exposure to these pollutants “ will contribute to defeating COVID-19.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ precise harm that a single microgram/cubic meter increase in air pollution has on a population , which , according to researchers from the Harvard T.H .
Chan School of Public Health , is “ an 8 % increase in mortality from COVID-19.
” While alarming , these findings aren ’ t surprising , according to Linda Birnbaum , the former director of the National Institutes for Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program , who stepped down last year .
“ Everything in our health is determined by our environment , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pollutants , Birnbaum pointed to the potential for endocrine-disrupting chemicals to make people more vulnerable to Covid-19 .
Among them are BPA and its replacements ; phthalates , which are found in makeup , nail polish , and plastics , particularly food packaging ; and PFAS , a class of industrial contaminants most famously used to make Teflon and other nonstick products .
Exposure to even very small amounts of these chemicals has been linked with conditions that have been shown to make Covid-19 worse .
Phthalates are associated with damage to lungs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ diabetes , the second most common underlying condition in people who die of Covid-19 , according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .
BPA , which is often added to food packaging and drink bottles , is also linked to obesity , as well as asthma and diabetes .
PFAS , which also interferes with the functioning of the endocrine system , has been shown to cause several underlying conditions that leave people more vulnerable to Covid-19 .
People with higher levels of PFAS in their bodies are more likely to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ losing it .
The chemicals not only increase obesity risk in those exposed , but also in the granddaughters of women who were exposed .
And PFAS is associated with asthma and hypertension , two other conditions that appear to worsen people ’ s chances of surviving Covid-19 .
PFAS causes kidney disease and elevates levels of cholesterol and other fats in the blood , which also increase the chances that people with Covid-19 will be hospitalized or need intensive care .
The vast majority of people who die of Covid-19 had at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sick from the virus .
Compared to people who didn ’ t have underlying conditions , patients who had kidney disease , diabetes , lung disease , and heart disease , among other conditions , are six times as likely to be hospitalized with Covid-19 and 12 times as likely to die , according to the most recent data from the CDC .
In addition to causing medical problems that make people more vulnerable to the coronavirus , several environmental contaminants , including PFAS , also directly weaken the body ’ s immune @ @ @ @ @ @ @ both adults and children higher levels of certain PFAS chemicals were associated with weaker responses to vaccines .
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry , a division of the CDC , recognized this evidence in an announcement it recently posted to its website on the “ potential intersection between PFAS exposure and Covid-19.
” With the pre-pandemic knowledge of the effects of individual chemicals and the maps showing that Covid-19 is ravaging polluted areas , the next step for researchers is to address how exactly chemicals make individual people more susceptible @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pollution is associated with increased infections and more hospitalizations , ” said Birnbaum .
“ So it has a role .
The question is how much of a role and how do you show that an individual is getting sick is because they have higher levels ?
” Philippe Grandjean , a Danish scientist who was the first to show that children with relatively high PFAS levels had immune deficits and were more likely to get respiratory infections , has already begun to try to answer this question .
Grandjean is in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who were hospitalized with Covid-19 — “ just a few drops of the serum from leftover blood samples that hadn ’ t been used ” — analyzing them for PFAS levels , and comparing them with PFAS levels from the blood of people who were infected with the coronavirus but not hospitalized .
“ We really need to understand the connection between exposures at the individual level and Covid-19 severity , ” Grandjean said .
While noting that several environmental contaminants likely increase the risk of the disease , Grandjean expressed particular concern @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the body for years and some of them tend to concentrate in the lungs .
Grandjean , who is conducting the research in Denmark , hopes to have results of the study within the year .
Others are using animal experiments to explore how chemical exposure affects the impact of the coronavirus .
Paige Lawrence , a professor of environmental medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry , plans to infect mice with a mouse-adapted human coronavirus that was built from the 2003 SARS pandemic and study how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the viral infection .
“ We need to understand at a cellular level what ’ s changed ” by chemical exposure , she said .
“ We can ’ t improve health if we don ’ t know what we ’ re trying to fix.
” Lawrence ’ s past research has shown that the environmental contaminants dioxin and PCBs change the immune system by binding to receptor cells — an effect that , in the case of dioxin , lasts for generations .
While the research is underway , many of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the greater risk they may face during the pandemic .
“ I think about it a lot , ” said Hope Grosse , a resident of Warminster , Pennsylvania , who developed stage 4 cancer while drinking water that had been contaminated with PFAS from firefighting foam used at a nearby naval base .
“ My immune system was definitely impacted.
” Grosse , who had 25 lymph nodes removed during her cancer treatment , resumed her work as a realtor last month and wears gloves and a mask when she shows houses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as I can be , but I still worry , ” she said .
Whatever we learn from the research now in the pipeline , some scientists say there is already enough evidence to lay blame for at least a portion of the toll of the virus on chemicals — and their manufacturers .
“ Endocrine-disrupting chemicals are clearly involved in driving the comorbidities and are heightening mortality risk from Covid-19 , ” said Pete Myers , founder and chief scientist of Environmental Health Sciences .
“ You can ’ t hide from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ several environmental scientists who have been pushing for more than a decade — with little success — for government to limit the use of these chemicals .
“ The American Chemistry Council has impeded our ability to develop meaningful regulations , ” said Myers , referring to a powerful chemical industry trade group .
“ And the result of that is that these comorbidities have become epidemic over the last three decades .
And now more people are dying than would have.
” After publication , the American Chemistry Council responded with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ winning the fight against COVID-19 – federal and state officials have unanimously made that point clear .
ACC members produce critical ingredients for cleaning and disinfecting solutions , hand sanitizer , medical supplies , and personal protective equipment for frontline workers .
Our industry is working tirelessly to continue to help save lives and stop the spread of the virus .
The scientific community has a critical role to play in mitigating the spread not only of the virus , but of dangerous misinformation about its causes , effects , and potential treatments @ @ @ @ @ @ @ adverse COVID-19 outcomes , this early in the pandemic , with absolutely no evidence , falls into the category of disinformation .
We urge the public to be wary of individuals who seem all too quick to attach personal research interests and radical policy beliefs about chemical safety to this tragic pandemic .

Almost six months into the coronavirus pandemic, it’s already clear that environmental pollution is responsible for some portion of the hundreds of thousands of Covid-19 deaths around the world. Now scientists are trying to pinpoint how exactly industrial chemicals make people more susceptible to the coronavirus and how much of the blame for the devastation wrought by the new coronavirus should be laid at the feet of the industry that produces those chemicals.
The link between Covid-19 and air pollution is particularly strong. A study set to publish in July linked six air pollutants in 120 Chinese cities with cases of the viral disease. Researchers in Italy have also shown that long-term exposure to air pollution is “significantly correlated with cases of Covid-19” in up to 71 provinces in that country. And a study that used data from California, set to publish in Environmental Research in August, showed that the air pollutants PM2.5, PM 10, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide were associated with coronavirus infections. The authors of that study concluded that reducing exposure to these pollutants “will contribute to defeating COVID-19.”
Scientists have even managed to measure the precise harm that a single microgram/cubic meter increase in air pollution has on a population, which, according to researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, is “an 8% increase in mortality from COVID-19.”
While alarming, these findings aren’t surprising, according to Linda Birnbaum, the former director of the National Institutes for Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program, who stepped down last year. “Everything in our health is determined by our environment,” she said.
In addition to air pollutants, Birnbaum pointed to the potential for endocrine-disrupting chemicals to make people more vulnerable to Covid-19. Among them are BPA and its replacements; phthalates, which are found in makeup, nail polish, and plastics, particularly food packaging; and PFAS, a class of industrial contaminants most famously used to make Teflon and other nonstick products.
Exposure to even very small amounts of these chemicals has been linked with conditions that have been shown to make Covid-19 worse. Phthalates are associated with damage to lungs and obesity, as well as to diabetes, the second most common underlying condition in people who die of Covid-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. BPA, which is often added to food packaging and drink bottles, is also linked to obesity, as well as asthma and diabetes.
PFAS, which also interferes with the functioning of the endocrine system, has been shown to cause several underlying conditions that leave people more vulnerable to Covid-19. People with higher levels of PFAS in their bodies are more likely to gain weight and have a harder time losing it. The chemicals not only increase obesity risk in those exposed, but also in the granddaughters of women who were exposed. And PFAS is associated with asthma and hypertension, two other conditions that appear to worsen people’s chances of surviving Covid-19. PFAS causes kidney disease and elevates levels of cholesterol and other fats in the blood, which also increase the chances that people with Covid-19 will be hospitalized or need intensive care.
Read Our Complete Coverage The Coronavirus Crisis
The vast majority of people who die of Covid-19 had at least one other illness before they got sick from the virus. Compared to people who didn’t have underlying conditions, patients who had kidney disease, diabetes, lung disease, and heart disease, among other conditions, are six times as likely to be hospitalized with Covid-19 and 12 times as likely to die, according to the most recent data from the CDC.
In addition to causing medical problems that make people more vulnerable to the coronavirus, several environmental contaminants, including PFAS, also directly weaken the body’s immune response. Studies have shown that in both adults and children higher levels of certain PFAS chemicals were associated with weaker responses to vaccines. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a division of the CDC, recognized this evidence in an announcement it recently posted to its website on the “potential intersection between PFAS exposure and Covid-19.”
With the pre-pandemic knowledge of the effects of individual chemicals and the maps showing that Covid-19 is ravaging polluted areas, the next step for researchers is to address how exactly chemicals make individual people more susceptible to Covid-19. “We now know pollution is associated with increased infections and more hospitalizations,” said Birnbaum. “So it has a role. The question is how much of a role and how do you show that an individual is getting sick is because they have higher levels?”
Read our complete coverage Bad Chemistry
Philippe Grandjean, a Danish scientist who was the first to show that children with relatively high PFAS levels had immune deficits and were more likely to get respiratory infections, has already begun to try to answer this question. Grandjean is in the process of collecting blood samples of people who were hospitalized with Covid-19 — “just a few drops of the serum from leftover blood samples that hadn’t been used” — analyzing them for PFAS levels, and comparing them with PFAS levels from the blood of people who were infected with the coronavirus but not hospitalized.
“We really need to understand the connection between exposures at the individual level and Covid-19 severity,” Grandjean said. While noting that several environmental contaminants likely increase the risk of the disease, Grandjean expressed particular concern about PFAS compounds because they can remain in the body for years and some of them tend to concentrate in the lungs. Grandjean, who is conducting the research in Denmark, hopes to have results of the study within the year.
Others are using animal experiments to explore how chemical exposure affects the impact of the coronavirus. Paige Lawrence, a professor of environmental medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, plans to infect mice with a mouse-adapted human coronavirus that was built from the 2003 SARS pandemic and study how exposure to PFAS alters the course of the viral infection.
“We need to understand at a cellular level what’s changed” by chemical exposure, she said. “We can’t improve health if we don’t know what we’re trying to fix.” Lawrence’s past research has shown that the environmental contaminants dioxin and PCBs change the immune system by binding to receptor cells — an effect that, in the case of dioxin, lasts for generations.
Do you have a coronavirus story you want to share? Email us at coronavirus@theintercept.com or use one of these secure methods to contact a reporter.
While the research is underway, many of the people in highly polluted communities worry about the greater risk they may face during the pandemic. “I think about it a lot,” said Hope Grosse, a resident of Warminster, Pennsylvania, who developed stage 4 cancer while drinking water that had been contaminated with PFAS from firefighting foam used at a nearby naval base. “My immune system was definitely impacted.” Grosse, who had 25 lymph nodes removed during her cancer treatment, resumed her work as a realtor last month and wears gloves and a mask when she shows houses. “I’m as careful as I can be, but I still worry,” she said.
Whatever we learn from the research now in the pipeline, some scientists say there is already enough evidence to lay blame for at least a portion of the toll of the virus on chemicals — and their manufacturers.
“Endocrine-disrupting chemicals are clearly involved in driving the comorbidities and are heightening mortality risk from Covid-19,” said Pete Myers, founder and chief scientist of Environmental Health Sciences. “You can’t hide from that truth.” Myers is one of several environmental scientists who have been pushing for more than a decade — with little success — for government to limit the use of these chemicals.
“The American Chemistry Council has impeded our ability to develop meaningful regulations,” said Myers, referring to a powerful chemical industry trade group. “And the result of that is that these comorbidities have become epidemic over the last three decades. And now more people are dying than would have.”
Update: June 26, 2020
After publication, the American Chemistry Council responded with the following statement:


theintercept--2020-06-26--How Trump’s Deportation Flights Are Putting Latin America and the Caribbean at Risk

J his body ached , and he was feverish .
The 40-year-old was being held with dozens of other Haitians in a crowded U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility at the Alexandria International Airport in Louisiana .
“ They give you Tylenol , ibuprofen , that ’ s it , ” he told The Intercept in late May .
“ After that , they just want to send you right back to your country .
If you die , you die.
” Jude , who is being identified by a pseudonym to protect him and his family , said he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the nearby Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center , where he ’ d begged staff to send him to the hospital .
But instead of receiving medical treatment , Jude said , he was being deported back to Haiti .
With approximately 120 ICU beds , and even fewer ventilators , for a population of 11 million , the island nation was bracing for the worst .
Haiti had already closed its borders and shut down airports in March , after its first two cases of infection were reported , and medical experts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the impoverished country ’ s already debilitated health system .
But the morning after he spoke with The Intercept , Jude was fitted with shackles on his wrists and ankles and marched out to a chartered plane waiting on the runway .
With him were four other Haitian immigrants who told The Intercept that they had also been quarantined at Pine Prairie after testing positive for the virus .
The May 26 deportation flight was one of seven to touch down in the Haitian capital since President Donald Trump declared the pandemic a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cases of the coronavirus are rapidly rising in most of Latin America .
Some government officials complain that instead of helping the region fight the pandemic , the U.S. is only fanning the flames of contagion .
Interviews with people detained by ICE and government and public health officials in Haiti and Guatemala make clear the repercussions of hard-line immigration enforcement at any cost .
Most imminent are the public health concerns , as the U.S. fails to consistently test for Covid-19 infections among those it plans to deport .
Beyond that , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ migrants have become targets for blame , while limited public health systems struggle to cope with the crisis .
Finally , there are growing diplomatic consequences , as the U.S. pushes allied nations to allow the deportation flights to land .
In response , leaders like Haitian Foreign Affairs Minister Claude Joseph have repeatedly pleaded with the U.S. government to suspend the flights .
“ I have many times over the phone tried to convince our American friends , ” Joseph told the Miami Herald .
U.S. Congress members and medical organizations have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a moratorium , with groups like Doctors Without Borders warning that a major outbreak will be “ catastrophic ” for countries with “ fragile health systems.
” But while the Trump administration has invoked the pandemic to justify new restrictions on immigration , it has continued to forge ahead with deportations , creating a petri dish for the virus in crowded immigration detention facilities and then exporting it overseas .
From the early days of the pandemic , the U.S. paid little heed to public health guidance when it came to detained immigrants @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spots for the illness .
ICE updates its numbers irregularly , but as of June 19 , it had tested 8,858 detainees ; as of June 25 , 2,521 were reported positive for the virus .
An epidemiological model , funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences , estimated from ICE ’ s existing data that at least 72 percent of the population in detention could potentially become infected .
Yet ICE has continued to detain immigrants , then deport them , and has even recently expanded its flights to include @ @ @ @ @ @ @ confirmed that 22 people had tested positive for Covid-19 after landing on May 19 .
Central America ’ s Northern Triangle , however , has received the majority of flights , since many of the migrants arriving at the U.S. ’ s southern border in recent years have been from El Salvador , Honduras , and Guatemala .
Of 351 likely deportation flights between February 3 and June 24 , according to CEPR , 240 went to the Northern Triangle .
Guatemala was the top recipient with 100 flights .
After dozens of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Guatemala refused to accept any more flights until the U.S. agreed to certify that each person had tested negative before departure .
After the U.S. agreed , flights resumed in May , but shortly thereafter , another person tested positive after landing in Guatemala City , casting doubt on the reliability of that testing .
ICE did not respond to The Intercept ’ s repeated requests for information on testing , including its testing protocol agreement with Guatemala .
The country ’ s new president , Alejandro Giammattei , a physician and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ May 21 online event hosted by the Atlantic Council .
The previous month , Guatemala ’ s public health ministry had reported that nearly 20 percent of the country ’ s Covid-19 cases had come from U.S. deportation flights .
“ Our hospitals have limited capacity , but now we have to treat these patients infected with a disease that didn ’ t originate here , ” he said .
“ This creates such a burden for us .
… Guatemala is an ally of the United States , but I don ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Guatemala , because they don ’ t treat us like one.
” “ They ’ re capturing migrants in the United States , then putting them in detention where they get infected , and sending them back to us , ” said Dr. Lucrecia Hernández Mack , a physician and member of the Guatemalan Congress .
“ And our hospitals can barely cope from day to day , let alone with the situation we are in now.
” ICE claims that it follows the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Yet while the CDC has emphasized the need for social distancing and warned that any form of travel risks spreading the virus , Jude said he was transferred to multiple detention centers in March and early April , traveling hundreds of miles on crowded buses before testing positive later that month .
Even after he tested positive , he said , ICE kept putting him on buses with other detainees rather than isolating him until he recovered .
In March , Jude was shuffled to various facilities in Georgia , including the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ICE Processing Center , and the Stewart Detention Center .
From there , Jude said , he was placed on a packed bus with others from Haiti , Guatemala , and Mexico and sent to an ICE staging facility at the Alexandria airport in Louisiana to await deportation .
At the airport , he was held in a room with about 60 other Haitian immigrants .
Among them was Stanley , 25 , who like other detained or recently deported immigrants cited in this article is being identified by a pseudonym .
Stanley @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been transferred from the Glades County Detention Center in Florida , where he said several detainees were sick with fevers and having difficulty breathing .
Sixty-six detainees at Glades have since tested positive for Covid-19 , according to ICE .
On April 7 , after nearly a week at the airport , Jude and Stanley said they were preparing to be deported to Port-au-Prince when they were pulled from the flight at the last minute , along with about two dozen other Haitians .
At least three individuals who remained on the flight @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Haiti , according to the country ’ s Ministry of Public Health .
A week after the flight , 13 staff members at the Alexandria facility also tested positive for the virus .
Jude and Stanley were transferred to the nearby Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center , where according to Stanley , they were put in a cell with others who ’ d been detained with them at the airport .
Jude , Stanley , and four of their cellmates told The Intercept that they came down with fevers and body aches soon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , said he was so sick he couldn ’ t walk .
“ I couldn ’ t even move , ” he said .
“ I had to get wheelchaired to a vehicle and wheelchaired to the hospital.
” All six men said they tested positive for the virus at Pine Prairie in April .
ICE has reported 30 confirmed cases at the facility .
GEO Group , the private prison company that runs both the Alexandria and Pine Prairie facilities , declined to comment for this article .
ICE did not respond @ @ @ @ @ @ @ comment , nor did the Glades County Detention Center .
Henry Lucero , the executive associate director of ICE ’ s Enforcement and Removal Operations , told a Senate Judiciary Committee panel in June that due to a lack of testing kits , ICE doesn ’ t always test people before moving them from one detention facility to another , nor does it test everyone it returns on deportation flights .
Lucero said the agency had acquired “ 2,000 testing kits from the Department of Health and Human Services ” and “ is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ per month from HHS for the foreseeable future.
” HHS did not respond to repeated requests from The Intercept for information about the shortage of tests .
With limited testing , the agency can ’ t accurately gauge how extensively the virus has spread among detainees , said Dr. Joseph Shin , co-medical director of the Weill Cornell Center for Human Rights in New York .
“ It ’ s like rolling the dice , ” he said .
“ They may not be symptomatic , but you don ’ t know if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re going to be symptomatic and they ’ re just in an incubation period.
” Also problematic is the decision to blindly move detainees multiple times .
“ It flies in the face of our general principles of social distancing and minimizing the movement of people , ” Shin said .
“ We ’ ve seen how quickly this virus can leap to individuals in congregate settings , and that includes the staff , and also can follow these people out into the community to seed further infections.
” During his testimony @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some deportees had tested positive after arriving in their home countries on U.S. flights .
“ We are aware of reports , ” he testified .
“ But there were no known positives that were removed actively with Covid-19.
” Before someone boards a flight , agents look for symptoms such as cough or fever , Lucero said , adding that they also randomly test a subset of detainees regardless of their symptoms .
In negotiations with U.S. diplomatic staff , governments like Haiti ’ s have received additional assurances .
“ The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the people who would be deported in the month of May had not been exposed to the virus , ” a spokesperson for Haiti ’ s foreign ministry told The Intercept .
The U.S. Embassy in Haiti declined to comment .
Because of the high risk at sites like detention centers , the United Nations has recommended that individuals who test positive for Covid-19 in such facilities be quarantined in isolation from the general population until they have tested negative on two subsequent tests .
Jude , Stanley , and Daniel said the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them that they would not be removed from quarantine until they had tested negative twice .
Stanley said they were tested regularly using a cotton swab inserted deep into their nasal cavities .
The tests caused so much pain and discomfort that some of the detainees began to object .
“ Every 24 hours , they kept coming to pressure us to take the test , ” said Stanley .
“ They just come every day saying , OK , you guys got ta take a test.
” Altogether , Jude said he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Each time , he was told the results were still positive , he said .
But just a day after he received the results of his sixth test , Jude said staff told him to “ pack up ” because ICE planned to deport him the next morning .
He was listed as a passenger on a May 11 flight to Port-au-Prince , according to a flight manifest obtained by The Intercept .
Once again , Jude and Stanley were transported to ICE ’ s holding facility at the Alexandria airport .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ said Stanley .
“ With everybody else , to get ready for the flight.
” But , after public outcry , the two men were pulled from the flight a second time .
Prior to their departure , another detainee , Stephane Etienne , had spoken to immigration advocates and the media about his own recent positive test results .
He said he knew of others on the flight manifest who had also tested positive .
The men gained only a short reprieve .
Two weeks later , Jude , Stanley , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Haitian immigrants who told The Intercept that they had tested positive at Pine Prairie were deported as well .
Jude said he was still reporting symptoms of Covid-19 at the time .
As the Miami Herald reported , immigrant rights advocates said they knew of eight Haitians deported on May 26 who had previously tested positive .
Yet Daniel told The Intercept that there were actually nine of them on the plane — that he knew of — who had been in quarantine after testing positive at Pine Prairie .
When the buses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Daniel said they each once again had a swab jabbed up their noses .
This time , they were given a “ rapid test , ” according to interviews and the Miami Herald .
As Lucero mentioned during his testimony , ICE had recently bought 10 Covid-19 rapid-testing machines manufactured by Abbott Laboratories , which Trump has touted in press briefings .
The Abbott ID NOW test , run on a machine about the size of a toaster , typically produces a result within 15 minutes .
The machines are currently being used @ @ @ @ @ @ @ government , but the test ’ s accuracy is still being questioned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration .
In May , the FDA issued an advisory warning that the rapid test could yield “ potential inaccurate results.
” The FDA stated that it is working with Abbott to alert the public that “ any negative test results that are not consistent with a patient ’ s clinical signs and symptoms … should be confirmed with another test.
” After testing negative with the rapid test , Jude and Daniel said they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cleared to travel .
They were among 30 Haitians ICE deported on May 26 .
As the Department of Homeland Security later acknowledged , only 16 of these deportees were even given a rapid test for Covid-19 before they were deported .
By June 25 , Guatemala had 14,819 confirmed cases and 601 deaths , but the real toll is likely much higher , said Hernández Mack , who is also Guatemala ’ s former minister of public health .
Infections are being spurred even higher by Mexico deporting thousands more people over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ No one is receiving them or evaluating them , ” Hernández Mack said .
“ They don ’ t get the test , so we don ’ t know if they are positive , and they are returning to their communities not knowing they are contagious and could infect their families .
… We have a very precarious health system , which is starting to collapse.
” Doctors and nurses have protested conditions , according to local news reports , demanding more protective gear and equipment , and the director of the nation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recently tested positive .
To address the growing need , Hernández Mack said the government has created a makeshift hospital in an industrial park in Guatemala City where returning migrants with mild symptoms are now quarantined .
The more serious cases are sent to a hospital in the city , but as of mid-May , it had already been overwhelmed , she said .
Much of Guatemala is rural and mountainous , with few health services and largely cut off from the nation ’ s wealthier capital .
In some communities , recently @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Since March , Giammattei ’ s administration has publicized the idea that migrants are bringing Covid-19 with them from the U.S. , while at the same time , his administration has failed to create an effective educational campaign about how people can prevent the spread of the virus .
Both elements of that approach have helped sow panic and the persecution of returning migrants , Hernández Mack said .
“ There are communities who have rejected them not knowing whether they are infected or not , ” she said .
“ They don @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with their families , because of the stigma.
” Buses carrying migrants have been barred from entering towns , and some returnees have been expelled from their communities because of fear of contagion .
In Escuintla , on the southern coast of Guatemala , one family ’ s home was surrounded by a mob of angry neighbors who demanded that they leave after one of them tested positive for the virus and the family was placed under quarantine , said Renzo Rosal , a political analyst in Guatemala City .
“ The police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he said .
“ People are scared.
” Exporting the virus to the very allies the United States needs to curb immigration to its southern border is fostering resentment as these leaders are forced to beg State Department and Homeland Security officials not to send their citizens back if they are sick .
In Haiti , calls for a ban on flights increased in April , when three Haitians tested positive for Covid-19 after disembarking in the Haitian capital .
In an open letter to Haitian President Jovenel Moïse , 14 civil society @ @ @ @ @ @ @ moratorium suspending all deportations from the U.S. during the pandemic .
A committee of leading Haitian doctors and scientists also recommended a moratorium .
Guatemala has gone a step further , repeatedly suspending the flights only to lift the moratoriums under pressure from the United States .
Before and during the pandemic , Trump administration officials have threatened that any country that refuses to accept the deportation flights could face consequences , including trade tariffs and hits to visas and humanitarian aid .
In late March , a senior DHS official speaking on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it was “ not an acceptable position to the government of the United States that any country in the world whose citizens illegally entered our country would not take those citizens back under virtually any circumstances.
” The official added , “ There ’ s simply no defense of that position , and we feel very , very strongly about that , and we intend to act accordingly if the needs arise in the future.
” For Haiti and others dependent on U.S. foreign aid , Guatemala has served as a cautionary example @ @ @ @ @ @ @ demand that the U.S. no longer return deportees who were positive for Covid-19 , while neighboring El Salvador and Honduras have allowed the deportations to continue and been largely compliant .
In April , Guatemala was conspicuously absent from any mention as Trump praised Honduras and El Salvador for their help in curbing migration , saying that the U.S. would be sending both countries desperately needed ventilators .
Guatemala didn ’ t fail to notice the slight .
“ We ’ ve seen how they ’ ve assisted other countries with ventilators , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ appearance .
“ We don ’ t feel very grateful for the way we have been treated.
” At least one U.S. official denied that Guatemala was suffering reprisals for being the first to publicly protest the flights .
State Department official Michael Kozak said during a teleconference call that there wasn ’ t any “ hard linkage ” between cooperation on removals and ventilators .
“ It ’ s not that we haven ’ t had a cooperative relationship with them , ” he said of Guatemala .
“ It ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ snags and we ’ re working through that with them.
” But the perception from within the country is otherwise , said a retired Guatemalan diplomat , who asked to remain anonymous because he ’ s not authorized to speak for the current government .
“ It is my understanding that we are being punished , ” he said .
“ The administration has already said it would withhold visas for Guatemalan citizens , including businesspeople and government officials , so it ’ s a serious challenge for a country like Guatemala that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it ’ s a threat that is taken seriously.
” Since Jude was deported , cases in Haiti have more than quadrupled , from less than 1,100 in late May to more than 5,400 .
A Haitian civil servant involved in the country ’ s Covid-19 response efforts , who did not wish to be identified because he fears reprisals , told The Intercept that he fears that “ we ’ re sitting on a ticking time bomb.
” The pandemic is hitting at the same time as a deepening political and economic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pan American Health Organization recently warned that “ there is real danger of a large-scale outbreak followed by a humanitarian crisis in Haiti.
” Deportations from the U.S. are exacerbating these issues .
Honduras , which has received the second-highest number of flights after Guatemala , has confirmed more than 14,500 cases and 417 deaths , while in El Salvador , at least 5,300 cases and 126 deaths have been reported .
Several likely deportation flights from the U.S. have also touched down in some of the hardest-hit countries , including Brazil , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; Ecuador , which has one of the highest fatality rates in Latin America ; and the Dominican Republic , which has more Covid-19 infections than any other Caribbean country .
The situation is also dire in Guatemala , where infections outpace neighboring El Salvador and Honduras .
Paulina Lopes , a Mayan community health organizer in the city of Santa Cruz del Quiche in the western highlands , said many in Indigenous Mayan communities are not reporting to the authorities when they ’ re sick .
Lopes said that she ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ill are dying at home because they fear having their community cordoned off by the military if an outbreak is reported .
In much of rural Guatemala , hospitals are more like ill-equipped health centers , Lopes said , and “ don ’ t have the equipment or capacity to receive people .
Even when there ’ s no pandemic , they still don ’ t treat people.
” A strict lockdown enforced by the military and police in Indigenous communities has also increased hunger and malnutrition , already a problem in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ change .
“ They have locked us up in our homes , and there is no work , ” said Lopes .
“ People can ’ t go to their land to collect or cultivate their food.
” Since the lockdown began in mid-March , families suffering from hunger have descended from the mountains , waving white flags to signify that they are starving .
They now line the streets of towns and the sides of highways asking for help .
“ I have never seen something like this in my life , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it is very tense , very difficult.
” Families can ’ t afford food , let alone face masks or hand sanitizer , she said .
“ It is a total lie that the government is helping the rural areas .
They say they ’ ve sent supplies , but it ’ s a lie .
The help hasn ’ t arrived in our communities.
” Guatemala was already reeling after Trump cut foreign aid to the country in 2019 , because he claimed that it wasn ’ t doing enough to prevent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rate of malnutrition in Indigenous communities is close to 65 percent .
Programs run by Mercy Corps , Save the Children , and other nonprofits that provided food assistance were discontinued due to lack of funding .
A longtime U.S. congressional staffer who specializes in Latin American policy , who asked not to be named since he fears reprisal , said that aid to the Northern Triangle had been provided in a bipartisan manner for decades until the Trump administration ended it .
Cutting foreign aid was an “ incredibly counterproductive move , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ causes of migration , ” he said .
“ And stopping people from making the dangerous trek in the first place.
” It would be difficult to find many in the State Department , he said , who thought cutting the funding was good policy .
“ I mean , this is coming directly from the top , ” he said .
“ This was , you know , a typical tweet by Trump and then the State Department has to go into full gear and figure out what to do next.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he would restore some funding , the congressional aide said , much of it was to be earmarked for law enforcement rather than development and food security .
“ They would argue that the security funding is needed to stem the migration , but I think that ’ s ludicrous , ” he said .
“ I mean it ’ s one piece of the puzzle , but if you don ’ t have a food secure western highland region in Guatemala and people are starving , then they ’ re going to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But migration trumps everything in this administration , he said , including growing concerns about leaders in the region exploiting the pandemic to consolidate power .
The Trump administration has stood by without protest while “ President Bukele is becoming increasingly authoritarian , ” he said of El Salvador ’ s new president , Nayib Bukele , who has given the police broad authority to use deadly force and arrest anyone violating quarantine .
Bukele also ordered hundreds of prisoners stripped to their underwear and packed tightly together in a prison patio as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The U.S. administration didn ’ t speak up either , he said , when Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández , who is being investigated for drug trafficking by the U.S. Justice Department , ended his country ’ s anti-corruption commission in January .
And it remained silent last September when Guatemala dissolved its own U.N.-backed anti-corruption commission .
“ The only thing this administration cares about is , Are they taking our deportees ?
And will they work with us in enforcing draconian immigration policies ?
Anything else is irrelevant , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doing now , from cutting aid to deporting people infected with the coronavirus and paying no heed to growing corruption , will only further destabilize the region .
“ You might not see it today because of the pandemic or because of current immigration policies , ” he said .
But abandoning Central America will have long-term consequences .
“ There will be more children , more families who are going to take the dangerous journey north.
” Rosal , the political commentator from Guatemala City , said that ultimately his country , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it has little choice but to acquiesce to the demands of its more powerful benefactor to the north .
“ We can neither afford to accept the flights nor reject them , ” he said .
“ Either way , we lose .
”

J ude said his body ached, and he was feverish. The 40-year-old was being held with dozens of other Haitians in a crowded U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility at the Alexandria International Airport in Louisiana. “They give you Tylenol, ibuprofen, that’s it,” he told The Intercept in late May. “After that, they just want to send you right back to your country. If you die, you die.”
Jude, who is being identified by a pseudonym to protect him and his family, said he’d tested positive for the coronavirus at the nearby Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center, where he’d begged staff to send him to the hospital. But instead of receiving medical treatment, Jude said, he was being deported back to Haiti.
With approximately 120 ICU beds, and even fewer ventilators, for a population of 11 million, the island nation was bracing for the worst. Haiti had already closed its borders and shut down airports in March, after its first two cases of infection were reported, and medical experts warned the pandemic could be catastrophic for the impoverished country’s already debilitated health system. But the morning after he spoke with The Intercept, Jude was fitted with shackles on his wrists and ankles and marched out to a chartered plane waiting on the runway. With him were four other Haitian immigrants who told The Intercept that they had also been quarantined at Pine Prairie after testing positive for the virus. The May 26 deportation flight was one of seven to touch down in the Haitian capital since President Donald Trump declared the pandemic a national emergency on March 13.
Between February 3 and June 24, the Center for Economic and Policy Research identified 351 likely ICE deportation flights to Latin America and the Caribbean. CEPR analyzed data from the public flight tracker FlightAware and designated flights as likely deportations if they were operated by airlines known to charter with ICE and matched known deportation routes. Click on individual airports to see the number of departing and arriving flights. Data visualization: Akil Harris/The Intercept. Source: Center for Economic and Policy Research
As countries closed their borders and public health guidance urged restrictions on movement to contain the pandemic, the United States likely chartered more than 350 deportation flights to at least 15 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean between February and late June, according to flight data analyzed by the nonprofit Center for Economic and Policy Research. Some of those flights had people on board who tested positive for the coronavirus after landing, according to government officials in the receiving countries. CEPR’s analysis, based on data from the public flight tracker FlightAware, designated flights as likely deportations if they were operated by airlines known to charter with ICE and matched known deportation routes. The true number of deportation flights is probably even greater, according to CEPR.
New cases of the coronavirus are rapidly rising in most of Latin America. Some government officials complain that instead of helping the region fight the pandemic, the U.S. is only fanning the flames of contagion. Interviews with people detained by ICE and government and public health officials in Haiti and Guatemala make clear the repercussions of hard-line immigration enforcement at any cost. Most imminent are the public health concerns, as the U.S. fails to consistently test for Covid-19 infections among those it plans to deport. Beyond that, reporting in receiving countries reveals that returning migrants have become targets for blame, while limited public health systems struggle to cope with the crisis. Finally, there are growing diplomatic consequences, as the U.S. pushes allied nations to allow the deportation flights to land.
In response, leaders like Haitian Foreign Affairs Minister Claude Joseph have repeatedly pleaded with the U.S. government to suspend the flights. “I have many times over the phone tried to convince our American friends,” Joseph told the Miami Herald. U.S. Congress members and medical organizations have also petitioned the Trump administration to issue a moratorium, with groups like Doctors Without Borders warning that a major outbreak will be “catastrophic” for countries with “fragile health systems.” But while the Trump administration has invoked the pandemic to justify new restrictions on immigration, it has continued to forge ahead with deportations, creating a petri dish for the virus in crowded immigration detention facilities and then exporting it overseas.
Flight Risk
From the early days of the pandemic, the U.S. paid little heed to public health guidance when it came to detained immigrants, and detention centers have become hot spots for the illness. ICE updates its numbers irregularly, but as of June 19, it had tested 8,858 detainees; as of June 25, 2,521 were reported positive for the virus. An epidemiological model, funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, estimated from ICE’s existing data that at least 72 percent of the population in detention could potentially become infected. Yet ICE has continued to detain immigrants, then deport them, and has even recently expanded its flights to include Liberia and India, where health officials confirmed that 22 people had tested positive for Covid-19 after landing on May 19.
Central America’s Northern Triangle, however, has received the majority of flights, since many of the migrants arriving at the U.S.’s southern border in recent years have been from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. Of 351 likely deportation flights between February 3 and June 24, according to CEPR, 240 went to the Northern Triangle. Guatemala was the top recipient with 100 flights.
Graphic: Soohee Cho/The Intercept. Source: Center for Economic and Policy Research
After dozens of returnees tested positive in March and April, Guatemala refused to accept any more flights until the U.S. agreed to certify that each person had tested negative before departure. After the U.S. agreed, flights resumed in May, but shortly thereafter, another person tested positive after landing in Guatemala City, casting doubt on the reliability of that testing. ICE did not respond to The Intercept’s repeated requests for information on testing, including its testing protocol agreement with Guatemala.
The country’s new president, Alejandro Giammattei, a physician and conservative, was notably livid during a May 21 online event hosted by the Atlantic Council. The previous month, Guatemala’s public health ministry had reported that nearly 20 percent of the country’s Covid-19 cases had come from U.S. deportation flights. “Our hospitals have limited capacity, but now we have to treat these patients infected with a disease that didn’t originate here,” he said. “This creates such a burden for us. … Guatemala is an ally of the United States, but I don’t believe the U.S. is an ally to Guatemala, because they don’t treat us like one.”
“They’re capturing migrants in the United States, then putting them in detention where they get infected, and sending them back to us,” said Dr. Lucrecia Hernández Mack, a physician and member of the Guatemalan Congress. “And our hospitals can barely cope from day to day, let alone with the situation we are in now.”
The Stewart Detention Center is seen through the front gate on Nov. 15, 2019, in Lumpkin, Ga. Photo: David Goldman/AP
Questionable Assurances
ICE claims that it follows the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Yet while the CDC has emphasized the need for social distancing and warned that any form of travel risks spreading the virus, Jude said he was transferred to multiple detention centers in March and early April, traveling hundreds of miles on crowded buses before testing positive later that month. Even after he tested positive, he said, ICE kept putting him on buses with other detainees rather than isolating him until he recovered.
In March, Jude was shuffled to various facilities in Georgia, including the Irwin County Detention Center, the Folkston ICE Processing Center, and the Stewart Detention Center. From there, Jude said, he was placed on a packed bus with others from Haiti, Guatemala, and Mexico and sent to an ICE staging facility at the Alexandria airport in Louisiana to await deportation.
At the airport, he was held in a room with about 60 other Haitian immigrants. Among them was Stanley, 25, who like other detained or recently deported immigrants cited in this article is being identified by a pseudonym. Stanley told The Intercept that he’d been transferred from the Glades County Detention Center in Florida, where he said several detainees were sick with fevers and having difficulty breathing. Sixty-six detainees at Glades have since tested positive for Covid-19, according to ICE.
Read Our Complete Coverage The Coronavirus Crisis
On April 7, after nearly a week at the airport, Jude and Stanley said they were preparing to be deported to Port-au-Prince when they were pulled from the flight at the last minute, along with about two dozen other Haitians. At least three individuals who remained on the flight tested positive for Covid-19 after landing in Haiti, according to the country’s Ministry of Public Health. A week after the flight, 13 staff members at the Alexandria facility also tested positive for the virus.
Jude and Stanley were transferred to the nearby Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center, where according to Stanley, they were put in a cell with others who’d been detained with them at the airport. Jude, Stanley, and four of their cellmates told The Intercept that they came down with fevers and body aches soon afterward. One man, 34-year-old Daniel, said he was so sick he couldn’t walk. “I couldn’t even move,” he said. “I had to get wheelchaired to a vehicle and wheelchaired to the hospital.” All six men said they tested positive for the virus at Pine Prairie in April. ICE has reported 30 confirmed cases at the facility.
GEO Group, the private prison company that runs both the Alexandria and Pine Prairie facilities, declined to comment for this article. ICE did not respond to The Intercept’s requests for comment, nor did the Glades County Detention Center.
Henry Lucero, the executive associate director of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, told a Senate Judiciary Committee panel in June that due to a lack of testing kits, ICE doesn’t always test people before moving them from one detention facility to another, nor does it test everyone it returns on deportation flights. Lucero said the agency had acquired “2,000 testing kits from the Department of Health and Human Services” and “is slated to receive an additional 2,000 tests per month from HHS for the foreseeable future.” HHS did not respond to repeated requests from The Intercept for information about the shortage of tests.
Even after he tested positive, Jude said, ICE kept putting him on buses with other detainees rather than isolating him until he recovered.
With limited testing, the agency can’t accurately gauge how extensively the virus has spread among detainees, said Dr. Joseph Shin, co-medical director of the Weill Cornell Center for Human Rights in New York. “It’s like rolling the dice,” he said. “They may not be symptomatic, but you don’t know if they are infected, or that they’re going to be symptomatic and they’re just in an incubation period.” Also problematic is the decision to blindly move detainees multiple times. “It flies in the face of our general principles of social distancing and minimizing the movement of people,” Shin said. “We’ve seen how quickly this virus can leap to individuals in congregate settings, and that includes the staff, and also can follow these people out into the community to seed further infections.”
During his testimony, Lucero conceded that his agency knew some deportees had tested positive after arriving in their home countries on U.S. flights. “We are aware of reports,” he testified. “But there were no known positives that were removed actively with Covid-19.” Before someone boards a flight, agents look for symptoms such as cough or fever, Lucero said, adding that they also randomly test a subset of detainees regardless of their symptoms.
In negotiations with U.S. diplomatic staff, governments like Haiti’s have received additional assurances. “The American government assured the Haitian government that the people who would be deported in the month of May had not been exposed to the virus,” a spokesperson for Haiti’s foreign ministry told The Intercept. The U.S. Embassy in Haiti declined to comment.
Because of the high risk at sites like detention centers, the United Nations has recommended that individuals who test positive for Covid-19 in such facilities be quarantined in isolation from the general population until they have tested negative on two subsequent tests. Jude, Stanley, and Daniel said the medical staff at Pine Prairie initially told them that they would not be removed from quarantine until they had tested negative twice. Stanley said they were tested regularly using a cotton swab inserted deep into their nasal cavities. The tests caused so much pain and discomfort that some of the detainees began to object. “Every 24 hours, they kept coming to pressure us to take the test,” said Stanley. “They just come every day saying, OK, you guys gotta take a test.”
Altogether, Jude said he was tested six times at Pine Prairie. Each time, he was told the results were still positive, he said. But just a day after he received the results of his sixth test, Jude said staff told him to “pack up” because ICE planned to deport him the next morning. He was listed as a passenger on a May 11 flight to Port-au-Prince, according to a flight manifest obtained by The Intercept.
Once again, Jude and Stanley were transported to ICE’s holding facility at the Alexandria airport. “We were shackled up,” said Stanley. “With everybody else, to get ready for the flight.”
But, after public outcry, the two men were pulled from the flight a second time. Prior to their departure, another detainee, Stephane Etienne, had spoken to immigration advocates and the media about his own recent positive test results. He said he knew of others on the flight manifest who had also tested positive.
The men gained only a short reprieve. Two weeks later, Jude, Stanley, and Daniel were all deported. Two other Haitian immigrants who told The Intercept that they had tested positive at Pine Prairie were deported as well. Jude said he was still reporting symptoms of Covid-19 at the time. As the Miami Herald reported, immigrant rights advocates said they knew of eight Haitians deported on May 26 who had previously tested positive. Yet Daniel told The Intercept that there were actually nine of them on the plane — that he knew of — who had been in quarantine after testing positive at Pine Prairie.
When the buses arrived at the airport, Jude and Daniel said they each once again had a swab jabbed up their noses. This time, they were given a “rapid test,” according to interviews and the Miami Herald. As Lucero mentioned during his testimony, ICE had recently bought 10 Covid-19 rapid-testing machines manufactured by Abbott Laboratories, which Trump has touted in press briefings. The Abbott ID NOW test, run on a machine about the size of a toaster, typically produces a result within 15 minutes. The machines are currently being used under an emergency authorization issued by the government, but the test’s accuracy is still being questioned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In May, the FDA issued an advisory warning that the rapid test could yield “potential inaccurate results.” The FDA stated that it is working with Abbott to alert the public that “any negative test results that are not consistent with a patient’s clinical signs and symptoms … should be confirmed with another test.”
After testing negative with the rapid test, Jude and Daniel said they were told that they’d been cleared to travel. They were among 30 Haitians ICE deported on May 26. As the Department of Homeland Security later acknowledged, only 16 of these deportees were even given a rapid test for Covid-19 before they were deported.
An immigration official uses a protective face mask as a preventive measure against the coronavirus upon the arrival of Guatemalan migrants deported from the U.S. at the Air Force base in Guatemala City on March 12, 2020. Photo: Johan Ordonez/AFP via Getty Images
Stigma Upon Return
Returning migrants not only suffer from the physical effects of the virus but also become targets for blame in their home countries.
At La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City, where deportation flights land, officials don’t have enough tests to be able to test each returning migrant. Instead they are checked for any visible signs of illness such as fever and cough, said Hernández Mack, who has been monitoring the government’s response to the pandemic. “They take their temperature and give them a quick physical evaluation,” she said.
Initially, in March, deportees were sent to a cordoned-off wing of the airport, where a few bare mattresses lay on the floor, and there was little access to food or water, according to Hernández Mack and local news reports. The conditions were so dismal that many walked out, taking a bus or hitching rides home, inadvertently infecting relatives and others along the way.
Buses carrying migrants have been barred from entering towns, and some returnees have been expelled from their communities because of fear of contagion.
By June 25, Guatemala had 14,819 confirmed cases and 601 deaths, but the real toll is likely much higher, said Hernández Mack, who is also Guatemala’s former minister of public health. Infections are being spurred even higher by Mexico deporting thousands more people over its southern border with Guatemala. “No one is receiving them or evaluating them,” Hernández Mack said. “They don’t get the test, so we don’t know if they are positive, and they are returning to their communities not knowing they are contagious and could infect their families. … We have a very precarious health system, which is starting to collapse.” Doctors and nurses have protested conditions, according to local news reports, demanding more protective gear and equipment, and the director of the nation’s primary hospital treating coronavirus patients recently tested positive.
To address the growing need, Hernández Mack said the government has created a makeshift hospital in an industrial park in Guatemala City where returning migrants with mild symptoms are now quarantined. The more serious cases are sent to a hospital in the city, but as of mid-May, it had already been overwhelmed, she said.
Much of Guatemala is rural and mountainous, with few health services and largely cut off from the nation’s wealthier capital. In some communities, recently deported migrants are being singled out. Since March, Giammattei’s administration has publicized the idea that migrants are bringing Covid-19 with them from the U.S., while at the same time, his administration has failed to create an effective educational campaign about how people can prevent the spread of the virus. Both elements of that approach have helped sow panic and the persecution of returning migrants, Hernández Mack said. “There are communities who have rejected them not knowing whether they are infected or not,” she said. “They don’t let them enter or reunite with their families, because of the stigma.”
Buses carrying migrants have been barred from entering towns, and some returnees have been expelled from their communities because of fear of contagion. In Escuintla, on the southern coast of Guatemala, one family’s home was surrounded by a mob of angry neighbors who demanded that they leave after one of them tested positive for the virus and the family was placed under quarantine, said Renzo Rosal, a political analyst in Guatemala City. “The police arrived and barely saved them,” he said. “People are scared.”
A Cautionary Example
Exporting the virus to the very allies the United States needs to curb immigration to its southern border is fostering resentment as these leaders are forced to beg State Department and Homeland Security officials not to send their citizens back if they are sick.
In Haiti, calls for a ban on flights increased in April, when three Haitians tested positive for Covid-19 after disembarking in the Haitian capital. In an open letter to Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, 14 civil society groups urged his government to negotiate a moratorium suspending all deportations from the U.S. during the pandemic. A committee of leading Haitian doctors and scientists also recommended a moratorium. Guatemala has gone a step further, repeatedly suspending the flights only to lift the moratoriums under pressure from the United States.
Before and during the pandemic, Trump administration officials have threatened that any country that refuses to accept the deportation flights could face consequences, including trade tariffs and hits to visas and humanitarian aid. In late March, a senior DHS official speaking on background told reporters in a teleconference that it was “not an acceptable position to the government of the United States that any country in the world whose citizens illegally entered our country would not take those citizens back under virtually any circumstances.” The official added, “There’s simply no defense of that position, and we feel very, very strongly about that, and we intend to act accordingly if the needs arise in the future.”
Trump administration officials have threatened that any country that refuses to accept the deportation flights could face consequences.
For Haiti and others dependent on U.S. foreign aid, Guatemala has served as a cautionary example. The country was the first to demand that the U.S. no longer return deportees who were positive for Covid-19, while neighboring El Salvador and Honduras have allowed the deportations to continue and been largely compliant. In April, Guatemala was conspicuously absent from any mention as Trump praised Honduras and El Salvador for their help in curbing migration, saying that the U.S. would be sending both countries desperately needed ventilators. Guatemala didn’t fail to notice the slight. “We’ve seen how they’ve assisted other countries with ventilators,” Giammattei said during his Atlantic Council appearance. “We don’t feel very grateful for the way we have been treated.”
At least one U.S. official denied that Guatemala was suffering reprisals for being the first to publicly protest the flights. State Department official Michael Kozak said during a teleconference call that there wasn’t any “hard linkage” between cooperation on removals and ventilators. “It’s not that we haven’t had a cooperative relationship with them,” he said of Guatemala. “It’s just they’ve run into some snags and we’re working through that with them.”
But the perception from within the country is otherwise, said a retired Guatemalan diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous because he’s not authorized to speak for the current government. “It is my understanding that we are being punished,” he said. “The administration has already said it would withhold visas for Guatemalan citizens, including businesspeople and government officials, so it’s a serious challenge for a country like Guatemala that is close to the U.S., and it’s a threat that is taken seriously.”
Municipal firefighters transfer a patient with coronavirus symptoms outside of the Hospital General de Enfermedades in Guatemala City on June 12, 2020. Photo: Johan Ordonez/AFP via Getty Images
“Anything Else Is Irrelevant”
Since Jude was deported, cases in Haiti have more than quadrupled, from less than 1,100 in late May to more than 5,400. A Haitian civil servant involved in the country’s Covid-19 response efforts, who did not wish to be identified because he fears reprisals, told The Intercept that he fears that “we’re sitting on a ticking time bomb.” The pandemic is hitting at the same time as a deepening political and economic crisis, and the head of the Pan American Health Organization recently warned that “there is real danger of a large-scale outbreak followed by a humanitarian crisis in Haiti.”
Deportations from the U.S. are exacerbating these issues. Honduras, which has received the second-highest number of flights after Guatemala, has confirmed more than 14,500 cases and 417 deaths, while in El Salvador, at least 5,300 cases and 126 deaths have been reported. Several likely deportation flights from the U.S. have also touched down in some of the hardest-hit countries, including Brazil, now second in the world for infections; Ecuador, which has one of the highest fatality rates in Latin America; and the Dominican Republic, which has more Covid-19 infections than any other Caribbean country.
The situation is also dire in Guatemala, where infections outpace neighboring El Salvador and Honduras. Paulina Lopes, a Mayan community health organizer in the city of Santa Cruz del Quiche in the western highlands, said many in Indigenous Mayan communities are not reporting to the authorities when they’re sick. Lopes said that she’s also heard that some who are critically ill are dying at home because they fear having their community cordoned off by the military if an outbreak is reported. In much of rural Guatemala, hospitals are more like ill-equipped health centers, Lopes said, and “don’t have the equipment or capacity to receive people. Even when there’s no pandemic, they still don’t treat people.”
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A strict lockdown enforced by the military and police in Indigenous communities has also increased hunger and malnutrition, already a problem in the long-suffering region wracked by drought and climate change. “They have locked us up in our homes, and there is no work,” said Lopes. “People can’t go to their land to collect or cultivate their food.” Since the lockdown began in mid-March, families suffering from hunger have descended from the mountains, waving white flags to signify that they are starving. They now line the streets of towns and the sides of highways asking for help. “I have never seen something like this in my life,” Lopes said. “Every day it is very tense, very difficult.”
Families can’t afford food, let alone face masks or hand sanitizer, she said. “It is a total lie that the government is helping the rural areas. They say they’ve sent supplies, but it’s a lie. The help hasn’t arrived in our communities.”
Guatemala was already reeling after Trump cut foreign aid to the country in 2019, because he claimed that it wasn’t doing enough to prevent migration to the United States. The rate of malnutrition in Indigenous communities is close to 65 percent. Programs run by Mercy Corps, Save the Children, and other nonprofits that provided food assistance were discontinued due to lack of funding. A longtime U.S. congressional staffer who specializes in Latin American policy, who asked not to be named since he fears reprisal, said that aid to the Northern Triangle had been provided in a bipartisan manner for decades until the Trump administration ended it. Cutting foreign aid was an “incredibly counterproductive move, because this funding was addressing the root causes of migration,” he said. “And stopping people from making the dangerous trek in the first place.”
It would be difficult to find many in the State Department, he said, who thought cutting the funding was good policy. “I mean, this is coming directly from the top,” he said. “This was, you know, a typical tweet by Trump and then the State Department has to go into full gear and figure out what to do next.”
“The only thing this administration cares about is, Are they taking our deportees? And will they work with us in enforcing draconian immigration policies?”
Even when Trump announced in October that he would restore some funding, the congressional aide said, much of it was to be earmarked for law enforcement rather than development and food security. “They would argue that the security funding is needed to stem the migration, but I think that’s ludicrous,” he said. “I mean it’s one piece of the puzzle, but if you don’t have a food secure western highland region in Guatemala and people are starving, then they’re going to migrate. You need both pieces.”
But migration trumps everything in this administration, he said, including growing concerns about leaders in the region exploiting the pandemic to consolidate power. The Trump administration has stood by without protest while “President Bukele is becoming increasingly authoritarian,” he said of El Salvador’s new president, Nayib Bukele, who has given the police broad authority to use deadly force and arrest anyone violating quarantine. Bukele also ordered hundreds of prisoners stripped to their underwear and packed tightly together in a prison patio as a show of force against gang leaders. The U.S. administration didn’t speak up either, he said, when Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who is being investigated for drug trafficking by the U.S. Justice Department, ended his country’s anti-corruption commission in January. And it remained silent last September when Guatemala dissolved its own U.N.-backed anti-corruption commission.
“The only thing this administration cares about is, Are they taking our deportees? And will they work with us in enforcing draconian immigration policies? Anything else is irrelevant,” he said.
Everything the administration is doing now, from cutting aid to deporting people infected with the coronavirus and paying no heed to growing corruption, will only further destabilize the region. “You might not see it today because of the pandemic or because of current immigration policies,” he said. But abandoning Central America will have long-term consequences. “There will be more children, more families who are going to take the dangerous journey north.”
Rosal, the political commentator from Guatemala City, said that ultimately his country, like so many others, believes that it has little choice but to acquiesce to the demands of its more powerful benefactor to the north. “We can neither afford to accept the flights nor reject them,” he said. “Either way, we lose.”


theintercept--2020-06-27--Black Lives Matter Wants to End Police Brutality. History Suggests It Will Go Much Further.

The most promising direction isn ’ t well-known outside of activist circles .
In 2016 the Movement for Black Lives , made up of dozens of Black-led organizations , issued a six-part platform called “ A Vision for Black Lives.
” The introduction stated , “ Neither our grievances nor our solutions are limited to the police killing of our people , ” and much of it is devoted to economic issues .
This year the MBL also released specific policy demands in response to Covid-19 .
Huge numbers of Americans have been brutalized physically , emotionally , or financially @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the number of diagnosed cases trends ominously up , we have no idea what ’ s next .
Everyone with eyes to see knows the path that brought the United States to this dreadful place is a dead end .
The question is whether America can change enough to head anywhere else .
The logic of history and the present time suggest that if the Black Lives Matter movement sustains itself , it will inevitably become about this larger agenda .
Some who joined a movement because they hoped for comparatively modest reforms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ limits of the current system , and learn from experience that everything has to change or very little will .
Already BLM has put on the table the concept of a redirection of public money from policing to health care , housing , schools , and jobs .
But as of 2017 , state and local governments — responsible for the great majority of expenditures on police and corrections — spent just $ 194 billion on them .
This sounds like a lot of money , but it ’ s less than 1 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and only one-fifth of the $ 1 trillion the U.S. spends on Medicare and Medicaid .
Even if somehow all of that $ 194 billion were shifted to different uses , it wouldn ’ t be enough for deep social change .
While it ’ s largely been forgotten now — on purpose — the civil rights movement during the 1960s faced a similar reality , and confronted it head-on .
Because of this , the movement was never just about ending America ’ s legal caste system ; it always had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ King Jr. delivered the “ I Have a Dream ” speech at a 1963 rally that was officially named the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom .
One common sign at the march was “ Civil Rights Plus Full Employment Equals Freedom.
” After passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 , King stated that they were the “ first phase ” of the civil rights movement , and the time had come for a “ second phase ” focused on economic equality .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ for All Americans , which called to “ wipe out poverty in a decade ” via universal health care , a government jobs guarantee , and much more .
In a famous 1967 speech , King was clear about what would be required to get decent lives for African Americans : “ We must honestly face the fact that the movement must address itself to the question of restructuring the whole of American society .
… The problem of racism , the problem of economic exploitation , and the problem of war are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ triple evils that are interrelated.
” When King was assassinated the next year , he was planning to lead a Poor People ’ s Campaign to Washington , D.C. , to get results via direct action .
America then successfully evaded and beat back these questions for 50 years .
But they didn ’ t disappear , they stayed right here .
Now the coronavirus pandemic has simultaneously demonstrated how high the stakes are , and that all of society ’ s supposedly iron-clad rules can be thrown out at a moment ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a time when Americans might be ready to rewrite the basic handbook , it ’ s now .
currently revising and expanding all of the Vision for Black Lives platform , but here ’ s where things stand now .
The first plank is called “ End the War on Black People.
” Among other things , it demands the demilitarization of law enforcement , an end to the death penalty , an end to the war on drugs , and an end to people with criminal histories being excluded from housing , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plank calls for reparations from “ the government , responsible corporations and other institutions that have profited off of the harm they have inflicted on Black people.
” It lists reparations in the form of free public college and a guaranteed minimum income for Black people , and mandated changes to public school curriculums to examine “ the social impacts of colonialism and slavery.
” The third plank , “ Invest-Divest , ” demands a reallocation of public money from policing , incarceration , and the national military to , among other things @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and universal health care .
The fourth plank , “ Economic Justice , ” calls for a progressive restructuring of the tax code , federal and state job programs targeted at marginalized Black people , the restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act , and the right for workers in both the public and private sectors to organize unions .
The fifth plank , “ Community Control , ” demands local control of law enforcement and schools .
It also calls for participatory budgeting , an invention of the Brazilian Workers ’ Party , in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of government money are spent .
The sixth plank , “ Political Power , ” calls for the release of political prisoners , public financing of elections , and protection of voting rights .
Then there ’ s the MBL ’ s specific platform on Covid-19 policy , filled with so many obvious , lifesaving ideas that it ’ s excruciating to realize none will be executed anytime soon .
Instituting all or even some of these policies would transform the United States .
In fact , the MBL platform acknowledges “ we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , like people , can sometimes change significantly .
It generally happens when their current existence becomes too painful to endure .
What we ’ ll find out now is whether America has gotten to that point .

Photo: Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images
Huge numbers of Americans have been brutalized physically, emotionally, or financially by the coronavirus pandemic. And as the number of diagnosed cases trends ominously up, we have no idea what’s next. Everyone with eyes to see knows the path that brought the United States to this dreadful place is a dead end. The question is whether America can change enough to head anywhere else.
The most promising direction isn’t well-known outside of activist circles. In 2016 the Movement for Black Lives, made up of dozens of Black-led organizations, issued a six-part platform called “A Vision for Black Lives.” The introduction stated, “Neither our grievances nor our solutions are limited to the police killing of our people,” and much of it is devoted to economic issues. This year the MBL also released specific policy demands in response to Covid-19.
The logic of history and the present time suggest that if the Black Lives Matter movement sustains itself, it will inevitably become about this larger agenda. Some who joined a movement because they hoped for comparatively modest reforms will find themselves bumping up against the limits of the current system, and learn from experience that everything has to change or very little will.
Already BLM has put on the table the concept of a redirection of public money from policing to health care, housing, schools, and jobs. But as of 2017, state and local governments — responsible for the great majority of expenditures on police and corrections — spent just $194 billion on them. This sounds like a lot of money, but it’s less than 1 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product, and only one-fifth of the $1 trillion the U.S. spends on Medicare and Medicaid. Even if somehow all of that $194 billion were shifted to different uses, it wouldn’t be enough for deep social change.
While it’s largely been forgotten now — on purpose — the civil rights movement during the 1960s faced a similar reality, and confronted it head-on. Because of this, the movement was never just about ending America’s legal caste system; it always had a powerful economic component. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech at a 1963 rally that was officially named the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. One common sign at the march was “Civil Rights Plus Full Employment Equals Freedom.”
After passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, King stated that they were the “first phase” of the civil rights movement, and the time had come for a “second phase” focused on economic equality. He helped promote a Federal Freedom Budget for All Americans, which called to “wipe out poverty in a decade” via universal health care, a government jobs guarantee, and much more.
In a famous 1967 speech, King was clear about what would be required to get decent lives for African Americans: “We must honestly face the fact that the movement must address itself to the question of restructuring the whole of American society. … The problem of racism, the problem of economic exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together. These are the triple evils that are interrelated.” When King was assassinated the next year, he was planning to lead a Poor People’s Campaign to Washington, D.C., to get results via direct action.
America then successfully evaded and beat back these questions for 50 years. But they didn’t disappear, they stayed right here. Now the coronavirus pandemic has simultaneously demonstrated how high the stakes are, and that all of society’s supposedly iron-clad rules can be thrown out at a moment’s notice. If there ever were a time when Americans might be ready to rewrite the basic handbook, it’s now.
The MBL is currently revising and expanding all of the Vision for Black Lives platform, but here’s where things stand now.
The first plank is called “End the War on Black People.” Among other things, it demands the demilitarization of law enforcement, an end to the death penalty, an end to the war on drugs, and an end to people with criminal histories being excluded from housing, education, and employment.
The second plank calls for reparations from “the government, responsible corporations and other institutions that have profited off of the harm they have inflicted on Black people.” It lists reparations in the form of free public college and a guaranteed minimum income for Black people, and mandated changes to public school curriculums to examine “the social impacts of colonialism and slavery.”
The third plank, “Invest-Divest,” demands a reallocation of public money from policing, incarceration, and the national military to, among other things, education, local restorative justice, and universal health care.
The fourth plank, “Economic Justice,” calls for a progressive restructuring of the tax code, federal and state job programs targeted at marginalized Black people, the restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act, and the right for workers in both the public and private sectors to organize unions.
The fifth plank, “Community Control,” demands local control of law enforcement and schools. It also calls for participatory budgeting, an invention of the Brazilian Workers’ Party, in which regular people directly debate how portions of government money are spent.
The sixth plank, “Political Power,” calls for the release of political prisoners, public financing of elections, and protection of voting rights.
Then there’s the MBL’s specific platform on Covid-19 policy, filled with so many obvious, lifesaving ideas that it’s excruciating to realize none will be executed anytime soon.
Instituting all or even some of these policies would transform the United States. In fact, the MBL platform acknowledges “we seek not reform but transformation.” Countries, like people, can sometimes change significantly. It generally happens when their current existence becomes too painful to endure. What we’ll find out now is whether America has gotten to that point.