theintercept--2020-04-13--Amid Coronavirus Pandemic, ICE Has Life-or-Death Power to Release Detainees

and María have almost identical immigration cases .
After all , they ’ re a lesbian couple with very similar backstories , who experienced many of the same incidents and general harassment in their native Cuba , applied jointly for asylum at the southern border , were detained together , and applied to be released from detention with the same U.S.-based sponsor .
Yet as the coronavirus pandemic rages around the country , killing thousands of people per day and spreading among Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees , Lorena is free , staying at a friend ’ s house in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center , growing ever more fearful that the virus will take her health , and maybe her life .
Pressure is growing on ICE to quickly release as many detainees as possible , as migrants stage protests and a flurry of legal actions bear down on the agency .
Yet ICE remains recalcitrant , opaque , and unpredictable in its decision-making .
One side effect of the coronavirus outbreak may be a growing awareness of just how many people in ICE detention simply don ’ t have to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to unilaterally release people in its custody who are not otherwise subject to mandatory detention , through humanitarian parole , bond , or own their own recognizance .
Of the roughly 34,000 people in ICE custody , the majority are not subject to mandatory detention , and about 6,000 of them have completed the initial step toward seeking asylum .
Nonetheless , ICE is reportedly only considering the release of about 600 detainees it deems vulnerable .
While there are some top-down directives supposedly guiding these decisions , it ’ s long been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ operate like its own little fiefdom , with wildly different standards for release that can shift at the drop of a hat , even depending on the day or whether an officer is keen on antagonizing a specific detainee .
A field office may decide one day that migrants newly barred from seeking asylum are no longer eligible for parole at all .
Another may decide that detainees can only be released if they have immediate family in the United States , despite there being no such requirement under the law .
Before @ @ @ @ @ @ @ releasable people in detention for longer , hampering their cases and sometimes leading them to accept deportation rather than remain indefinitely in jails or detention facilities that very much resemble jails .
In the midst of an aggressive and uncontained contagion that thrives on physical proximity , the inscrutable processes that result in detention determinations are tantamount to life-or-death decisions .
ICE currently acknowledges 72 confirmed cases of detainees with Covid-19 , the disease caused by the novel coronavirus .
The fact that some of those who remain in detention will die is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coronavirus has already killed inmates in jails and prisons around the country , including multiple in a single facility .
“ Jails , prisons , and the immigration detention facilities are overcrowded .
They are too crowded for people to practice social distancing , they are unhygienic , and they do not have the medical facilities to manage intensive care , ” Dr. Chris Beyrer , a professor and epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health , told The Intercept .
Beyrer explained that because the facilities are often in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an outbreak could quickly overwhelm the local health system , which would likely be facing escalating numbers of cases both in and out of detention .
“ There ’ s lots of people in and out , and also out in the community .
In the prison outbreaks that we know about — there was a major one in Wuhan , and there is now a major one underway on Rikers Island — it has been staff and guards who have been the vector for introducing this into the detention facility , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is there even in the best of circumstances , and detention conditions certainly are not the best of circumstances .
“ The only additional precautions they ’ ve taken is putting a little bit more soap in the bathrooms so we can wash our hands .
But it runs out because we ’ re like 50 women in this dorm , and so we ’ re without soap for a couple days until they refill it , ” María said in a telephone interview from detention .
( María and the other asylum-seekers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pseudonyms to protect them from retaliation . )
“ We are very afraid .
The officials here aren ’ t taking steps of any kind.
” detainees at the Richwood Correctional Center in Louisiana drafted an open letter to ICE and its supervisors at the Department of Homeland Security .
“ We , The Immigrants , detained for a very long period of time in the named detention center , request to you for freedom under any condition and supervision terms , parole , bond , bail or GPS tracker , ” they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , our unique crime was to come to this country looking for asylum , and in this moment our biggest fear : we haven ’ t the sanitizer-hygienic conditions needed if the Virus would get into the center.
” “ We are afraid because it ’ s about our life what we are talking about , nobody can minimize that , ” the letter continued .
“ We want to touch your Human Sensibility to find the best answer to our cases and also we want to know who is the one with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ detainees from South and Central America , the Caribbean , Africa , Eastern Europe , and South Asia signed the letter .
A search of ICE detainee records shows that some of the letter ’ s signatories are no longer in the system , meaning that they have either been released or deported , while others remain at Richwood , and some have been transferred to detention centers that now have confirmed Covid-19 cases , like the LaSalle ICE Processing Center .
The answer to the detainees ’ last question , about who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fates , seems to be each individual deportation officer , operating in a separate context in each different field office .
“ The discretion that ICE officers in particular have is longstanding .
It ’ s baked into the Immigration and Nationality Act , into federal federal immigration law , ” said César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández , an author and law professor at the University of Denver ’ s Sturm College of Law who has long studied immigration detention .
“ When you transpose the very clear expectations articulated by the president and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Homeland Security ] and ICE repeatedly for three and a half years , then the incentive is to take a more limited view of who merits release , rather than the view of the public health community.
” Sometimes , even the circumstances that led people to flee can end up damaging their chances of release once they reach the United States .
María ’ s attorneys — Liza Doubossarskaia and Bridget Crawford of Immigration Equality , an organization dedicated to representing LGBTQ and HIV-positive immigrants — believe that , had she and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their client might have already been out .
Crawford said it wasn ’ t the first time the organization had represented a same-sex couple in which one person was able to leave detention and the other was not .
“ If it was a heterosexual couple , I don ’ t think you ’ d necessarily have the same results .
They would have been able to get married .
But there ’ s a kind of discrimination that plays into some of these decisions , ” she said .
not a precedence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the COVID-19 pandemic , ” reads an email sent April 8 by an ICE official in Georgia to attorneys with the Innovation Law Lab .
The email came four days after ICE Assistant Director of Field Operations Peter Berg distributed guidance to field personnel directing them to “ re-assess custody ” of detainees with medical vulnerabilities — including those who were pregnant , over 60 years old , or had chronic conditions including blood disorders and lung disease — and the day after ICE assured congressional staffers that it would be following this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s a presumption to reconsider the release of at-risk detainees seems to depend on who you ask within ICE ’ s sprawling national bureaucracy .
A Venezuelan asylum-seeker who spoke to The Intercept from the Krome Detention Center in Miami last week — a facility that has since had a confirmed case — was abruptly released on Saturday .
Two days earlier , a detainee at the El Paso Processing Center in Texas was denied parole .
“ After reviewing all available information , you have failed to establish that to establish that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reasons or significant public benefit , ” reads a denial letter signed by Field Office Director Corey Price .
Things can shift around quickly and without much explanation .
Attorneys for Immigration Equality submitted a March 18 parole redetermination request for an HIV-positive client at the Richwood Correctional Center who had already been denied parole in February , writing that “ he must be released due to the grave and imminent danger posed to him by COVID-19.
” On March 30 , New Orleans field office director signed a form denying the parole @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ ICE previously provided you with a written decision declining to grant parole , and you have failed to provide additional documentation or to demonstrate any significant changed circumstances which would alter ICE ’ s previous determination.
” The global pandemic , apparently , did not constitute a significantly changed circumstance .
Less than a week later , the detainee was released , along with a handful of others .
While his attorneys are glad that he ’ s out , they don ’ t seem entirely sure of what changed or why @ @ @ @ @ @ @ still in .
In a statement , an ICE spokesperson wrote that “ ICE makes custody determinations every day on a case-by-case basis .
… When making such decisions , ICE officers weigh a variety of factors , including the person ’ s criminal record , immigration history , ties to the community , risk of flight , and whether he or she poses a potential threat to public safety .
In response to this global pandemic , ICE has instructed its field offices to further assess and consider for release certain individuals @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exposure , consistent with CDC guidelines .
… Additionally , efforts to identify other individuals who may be more vulnerable to COVID-19 , based on risk factors identified by the CDC , other than age and pregnancy , are ongoing.
” Jaime was supposed to have a bond hearing , but it was cancelled when the clerk was unable to locate his file .
“ I felt so bad that morning , without hope .
I felt like I was going to die in that place , ” he said .
He had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Facility in New Jersey for about three months .
According to Jaime , the detainees had all been moved from a dormitory-style section of the center to a cell block on about March 10 , but no one had told them why .
It wasn ’ t until they started refusing food that the jail administration informed them about the pandemic raging outside its walls .
“ There were guys losing control , hitting the doors , some were screaming , some fainted , ” he said .
Jaime had been hospitalized for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his wife and their three kids traveled from Central America to the U.S. southern border to seek asylum last year — so he knew that he was at greater risk .
Despite that , his attorneys hadn ’ t managed to get even a response to several attempts at bond or humanitarian release .
The evening that his bond hearing had been canceled , Jaime was freed , but not by ICE .
He was one of 10 people ordered released by a federal judge in New York , in response to a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Defender Services .
ICE and DHS “ have exhibited , and continue to exhibit , deliberate indifference to Petitioners ’ medical needs .
The spread of COVID-19 is measured in a matter of a single day—not weeks , months , or years—and Respondents appear to ignore this condition of confinement that will likely cause imminent , life-threatening illness , ” wrote District Judge Analisa Torres in her order .
The case is part of a battery of legal motions being brought around the country against ICE in federal court as a result of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have so far been largely successful .
Despite some losses , dozens of detainees have been ordered released .
These cases have mostly argued that continued detention is unconstitutional under the Fifth and Eighth Amendments , which ensure due process and prohibit cruel and unusual punishment .
Attorneys are essentially arguing that at this point , no one in ICE detention is really safe , whether or not they have any particular vulnerability .
It ’ s a view with scientific support .
“ One of the things we ’ ve seen with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there are lots of people with preexisting conditions who do badly .
There also are perfectly healthy people who are brought down by this .
So it ’ s not enough to say a public health response is to get the people with underlying conditions out of there .
That is absolutely essential , but it is insufficient , ” said Beyrer , the epidemiologist .
Already , there are indications that ICE is not giving up the fight .
In a response to a motion brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who has passed a credible fear interview , ICE attorneys insisted that “ parole is to be assessed on a ‘ case-by-case basis , ’ ” and “ whether a medical condition warrants parole in any specific individual situation is a determination entirely within ICE ’ s discretion.
” In her own state of self-isolation , Lorena has plenty of time to worry about María , sitting in detention by herself .
They speak frequently , and Lorena feels her partner growing frantic .
She doesn ’ t understand the obscure forces that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and can ’ t accept that maybe it doesn ’ t make sense .
In dark moments , she wonders whether they made the right decision to come to the U.S .
But then her resolve strengthens .
“ Sometimes I feel that I ’ ve lost the battle , but then I think about everything I ’ ve been through and left behind , and it gives me the desire to keep fighting , even if I haven ’ t gotten to my goal , ” she wrote in a text message @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to do it without her , because only she and I know what it ’ s cost us to get where we are .
”

On paper, Lorena and María have almost identical immigration cases. After all, they’re a lesbian couple with very similar backstories, who experienced many of the same incidents and general harassment in their native Cuba, applied jointly for asylum at the southern border, were detained together, and applied to be released from detention with the same U.S.-based sponsor.
Yet as the coronavirus pandemic rages around the country, killing thousands of people per day and spreading among Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees, Lorena is free, staying at a friend’s house in Arizona, while María remains detained at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center, growing ever more fearful that the virus will take her health, and maybe her life.
Pressure is growing on ICE to quickly release as many detainees as possible, as migrants stage protests and a flurry of legal actions bear down on the agency. Yet ICE remains recalcitrant, opaque, and unpredictable in its decision-making. One side effect of the coronavirus outbreak may be a growing awareness of just how many people in ICE detention simply don’t have to be there.
ICE has full discretion to unilaterally release people in its custody who are not otherwise subject to mandatory detention, through humanitarian parole, bond, or own their own recognizance. Of the roughly 34,000 people in ICE custody, the majority are not subject to mandatory detention, and about 6,000 of them have completed the initial step toward seeking asylum. Nonetheless, ICE is reportedly only considering the release of about 600 detainees it deems vulnerable.
While there are some top-down directives supposedly guiding these decisions, it’s long been known that each ICE field office can operate like its own little fiefdom, with wildly different standards for release that can shift at the drop of a hat, even depending on the day or whether an officer is keen on antagonizing a specific detainee. A field office may decide one day that migrants newly barred from seeking asylum are no longer eligible for parole at all. Another may decide that detainees can only be released if they have immediate family in the United States, despite there being no such requirement under the law.
Before the pandemic, this arbitrariness kept otherwise releasable people in detention for longer, hampering their cases and sometimes leading them to accept deportation rather than remain indefinitely in jails or detention facilities that very much resemble jails.
One side effect of the coronavirus may be a growing awareness of just how many people in ICE detention simply don’t have to be there.
In the midst of an aggressive and uncontained contagion that thrives on physical proximity, the inscrutable processes that result in detention determinations are tantamount to life-or-death decisions. ICE currently acknowledges 72 confirmed cases of detainees with Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The fact that some of those who remain in detention will die is not really up for debate. The coronavirus has already killed inmates in jails and prisons around the country, including multiple in a single facility.
“Jails, prisons, and the immigration detention facilities are overcrowded. They are too crowded for people to practice social distancing, they are unhygienic, and they do not have the medical facilities to manage intensive care,” Dr. Chris Beyrer, a professor and epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told The Intercept.
Beyrer explained that because the facilities are often in rural areas with limited health facilities, an outbreak could quickly overwhelm the local health system, which would likely be facing escalating numbers of cases both in and out of detention. “There’s lots of people in and out, and also out in the community. In the prison outbreaks that we know about — there was a major one in Wuhan, and there is now a major one underway on Rikers Island — it has been staff and guards who have been the vector for introducing this into the detention facility,” he said.
The threat of contagion is there even in the best of circumstances, and detention conditions certainly are not the best of circumstances. “The only additional precautions they’ve taken is putting a little bit more soap in the bathrooms so we can wash our hands. But it runs out because we’re like 50 women in this dorm, and so we’re without soap for a couple days until they refill it,” María said in a telephone interview from detention. (María and the other asylum-seekers interviewed for this story are identified by pseudonyms to protect them from retaliation.) “We are very afraid. The officials here aren’t taking steps of any kind.”
On March 20, detainees at the Richwood Correctional Center in Louisiana drafted an open letter to ICE and its supervisors at the Department of Homeland Security. “We, The Immigrants, detained for a very long period of time in the named detention center, request to you for freedom under any condition and supervision terms, parole, bond, bail or GPS tracker,” they wrote. “We are not criminals, our unique crime was to come to this country looking for asylum, and in this moment our biggest fear: we haven’t the sanitizer-hygienic conditions needed if the Virus would get into the center.”
“We are afraid because it’s about our life what we are talking about, nobody can minimize that,” the letter continued. “We want to touch your Human Sensibility to find the best answer to our cases and also we want to know who is the one with such responsibility.” A total of 179 detainees from South and Central America, the Caribbean, Africa, Eastern Europe, and South Asia signed the letter.
A search of ICE detainee records shows that some of the letter’s signatories are no longer in the system, meaning that they have either been released or deported, while others remain at Richwood, and some have been transferred to detention centers that now have confirmed Covid-19 cases, like the LaSalle ICE Processing Center.
The answer to the detainees’ last question, about who bears the crucial responsibility to decide their fates, seems to be each individual deportation officer, operating in a separate context in each different field office.
“The discretion that ICE officers in particular have is longstanding. It’s baked into the Immigration and Nationality Act, into federal federal immigration law,” said César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, an author and law professor at the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law who has long studied immigration detention. “When you transpose the very clear expectations articulated by the president and the heads of [the Department of Homeland Security] and ICE repeatedly for three and a half years, then the incentive is to take a more limited view of who merits release, rather than the view of the public health community.”
Read Our Complete Coverage The War on Immigrants
Sometimes, even the circumstances that led people to flee can end up damaging their chances of release once they reach the United States. María’s attorneys — Liza Doubossarskaia and Bridget Crawford of Immigration Equality, an organization dedicated to representing LGBTQ and HIV-positive immigrants — believe that, had she and Lorena been in a heterosexual relationship, their client might have already been out.
Crawford said it wasn’t the first time the organization had represented a same-sex couple in which one person was able to leave detention and the other was not. “If it was a heterosexual couple, I don’t think you’d necessarily have the same results. They would have been able to get married. But there’s a kind of discrimination that plays into some of these decisions,” she said.
“Currently, there is not a precedence within ICE to release detainees due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” reads an email sent April 8 by an ICE official in Georgia to attorneys with the Innovation Law Lab. The email came four days after ICE Assistant Director of Field Operations Peter Berg distributed guidance to field personnel directing them to “re-assess custody” of detainees with medical vulnerabilities — including those who were pregnant, over 60 years old, or had chronic conditions including blood disorders and lung disease — and the day after ICE assured congressional staffers that it would be following this policy.
Whether or not there’s a presumption to reconsider the release of at-risk detainees seems to depend on who you ask within ICE’s sprawling national bureaucracy. A Venezuelan asylum-seeker who spoke to The Intercept from the Krome Detention Center in Miami last week — a facility that has since had a confirmed case — was abruptly released on Saturday. Two days earlier, a detainee at the El Paso Processing Center in Texas was denied parole. “After reviewing all available information, you have failed to establish that to establish that parole is warranted based on urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit,” reads a denial letter signed by Field Office Director Corey Price.
Things can shift around quickly and without much explanation. Attorneys for Immigration Equality submitted a March 18 parole redetermination request for an HIV-positive client at the Richwood Correctional Center who had already been denied parole in February, writing that “he must be released due to the grave and imminent danger posed to him by COVID-19.”
ICE denied his parole redetermination request because a global pandemic, apparently, did not constitute a significantly changed circumstance.
On March 30, New Orleans field office director signed a form denying the parole request because, among other reasons, “ICE previously provided you with a written decision declining to grant parole, and you have failed to provide additional documentation or to demonstrate any significant changed circumstances which would alter ICE’s previous determination.” The global pandemic, apparently, did not constitute a significantly changed circumstance.
Less than a week later, the detainee was released, along with a handful of others. While his attorneys are glad that he’s out, they don’t seem entirely sure of what changed or why he’s out and others are still in.
In a statement, an ICE spokesperson wrote that “ICE makes custody determinations every day on a case-by-case basis. … When making such decisions, ICE officers weigh a variety of factors, including the person’s criminal record, immigration history, ties to the community, risk of flight, and whether he or she poses a potential threat to public safety. In response to this global pandemic, ICE has instructed its field offices to further assess and consider for release certain individuals deemed to be at greater risk of exposure, consistent with CDC guidelines. … Additionally, efforts to identify other individuals who may be more vulnerable to COVID-19, based on risk factors identified by the CDC, other than age and pregnancy, are ongoing.”
On March 26, Jaime was supposed to have a bond hearing, but it was cancelled when the clerk was unable to locate his file. “I felt so bad that morning, without hope. I felt like I was going to die in that place,” he said.
He had been detained at the Hudson County Correctional Facility in New Jersey for about three months. According to Jaime, the detainees had all been moved from a dormitory-style section of the center to a cell block on about March 10, but no one had told them why. It wasn’t until they started refusing food that the jail administration informed them about the pandemic raging outside its walls. “There were guys losing control, hitting the doors, some were screaming, some fainted,” he said.
Jaime had been hospitalized for pneumonia years earlier — before he, his wife and their three kids traveled from Central America to the U.S. southern border to seek asylum last year — so he knew that he was at greater risk. Despite that, his attorneys hadn’t managed to get even a response to several attempts at bond or humanitarian release.
The evening that his bond hearing had been canceled, Jaime was freed, but not by ICE. He was one of 10 people ordered released by a federal judge in New York, in response to a request filed by attorneys with the Brooklyn Defender Services. ICE and DHS “have exhibited, and continue to exhibit, deliberate indifference to Petitioners’ medical needs. The spread of COVID-19 is measured in a matter of a single day—not weeks, months, or years—and Respondents appear to ignore this condition of confinement that will likely cause imminent, life-threatening illness,” wrote District Judge Analisa Torres in her order.
The case is part of a battery of legal motions being brought around the country against ICE in federal court as a result of its inflexibility during the pandemic, which have so far been largely successful. Despite some losses, dozens of detainees have been ordered released.
These cases have mostly argued that continued detention is unconstitutional under the Fifth and Eighth Amendments, which ensure due process and prohibit cruel and unusual punishment. Attorneys are essentially arguing that at this point, no one in ICE detention is really safe, whether or not they have any particular vulnerability.
Attorneys are essentially arguing that at this point, no one in ICE detention is really safe, whether or not they have any particular vulnerability.
It’s a view with scientific support. “One of the things we’ve seen with this virus is that, yes, there are lots of people with preexisting conditions who do badly. There also are perfectly healthy people who are brought down by this. So it’s not enough to say a public health response is to get the people with underlying conditions out of there. That is absolutely essential, but it is insufficient,” said Beyrer, the epidemiologist.
Already, there are indications that ICE is not giving up the fight. In a response to a motion brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center seeking new parole decisions for any detainee who has passed a credible fear interview, ICE attorneys insisted that “parole is to be assessed on a ‘case-by-case basis,’” and “whether a medical condition warrants parole in any specific individual situation is a determination entirely within ICE’s discretion.”
In her own state of self-isolation, Lorena has plenty of time to worry about María, sitting in detention by herself. They speak frequently, and Lorena feels her partner growing frantic. She doesn’t understand the obscure forces that have acted to keep María in detention and can’t accept that maybe it doesn’t make sense. In dark moments, she wonders whether they made the right decision to come to the U.S. But then her resolve strengthens.
“Sometimes I feel that I’ve lost the battle, but then I think about everything I’ve been through and left behind, and it gives me the desire to keep fighting, even if I haven’t gotten to my goal,” she wrote in a text message. “I don’t want to do it without her, because only she and I know what it’s cost us to get where we are.”


theintercept--2020-04-13--Erik Prince Offered Lethal Services to Sanctioned Russian Mercenary Firm Wagner

of the private security firm Blackwater and a Trump administration adviser , has sought in recent months to provide military services to a sanctioned Russian mercenary firm in at least two African conflicts , according to three people with knowledge of the efforts .
Prince , who is the brother of Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos , met earlier this year with a top official of Russia ’ s Wagner Group and offered his mercenary forces to support the firm ’ s operations in Libya and Mozambique , according to two people familiar with Prince ’ s offer .
Wagner @ @ @ @ @ @ @ working with Prince , three people familiar with their decision told The Intercept .
A lawyer for Prince denied that his client met anyone from Wagner .
The Wagner Group is a semi-private military force that operates in countries or conflicts where the Russian government seeks plausible deniability for its activities .
It is often equipped and supported directly by the Russian Ministry of Defense , according to reports and experts who track Wagner ’ s activities .
The U.S. State Department website also lists Wagner as an entity connected to the “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Russian Federation.
” Any business relationship between Prince and Wagner would , in effect , make the influential Trump administration adviser a subcontractor to the Russian military .
In recent years , the Russian government has deployed Wagner to several African countries , Ukraine , and Syria , where the U.S. military killed dozens of Wagner fighters in 2018 after the Russians and their Syrian allies attacked an oil facility that the United States was defending .
“ Wagner Group is an instrument of Russian policy .
It works under the GRU , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” said Sean McFate , a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former military contractor who has written about mercenaries .
In attempting to do business with Wagner , Prince may also have exposed himself to legal liability .
In 2017 , the Trump administration sanctioned Wagner , as well as its founder and head Dmitry Utkin , for having “ recruited and sent soldiers to fight alongside [ Russian-backed ] separatists in eastern Ukraine ” during the 2014 Russian invasion .
The Russian government denied involvement in the invasion , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ control of Crimea , also in Ukrainian territory , in violation of international law .
The sanctions prohibit individuals or companies from providing “ financial , material , or technological support for , or goods or services to or in support of , any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order.
” They also forbid anyone “ to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf ” of Wagner .
The 2017 addition of Wagner to the sanctions list builds on a 2014 executive order @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In my experience , the act of soliciting from a sanctioned party would indeed be an apparent violation , ” said Brian O ’ Toole , a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council and former senior sanctions official at the Treasury Department .
“ Whether you make that [ legal ] case is an entirely separate matter , ” he said , adding that pitching business to Wagner “ would seem to be a fairly egregious thing to do.
” When Prince met with Wagner leadership , he was already under federal investigation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ proposal to the Russian firm also raises questions about whether Trump administration officials authorized the meeting or were aware of Prince ’ s efforts to work with the group .
A former Navy SEAL who rose to prominence and notoriety as head of the private security firm Blackwater , Prince has been a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump , serving as an unofficial adviser on military and foreign policy issues in Africa , the Middle East , and Afghanistan .
Prince was a Trump donor in 2016 and has worked to support @ @ @ @ @ @ @ solutions that would benefit his companies financially .
Early in the Trump administration , Prince proposed privatizing the war in Afghanistan and supplying Trump with a private spy service intended to circumvent the U.S. intelligence community .
Neither proposal succeeded , despite having support for some of his ideas from senior administration officials , including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo .
For years , Prince has tried , mostly unsuccessfully , to win military contracts with governments in Africa and the Middle East .
Wagner has become an increasingly visible player in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has grown , allowing the country to operate under the radar at a time when “ plausible deniability is more powerful than firepower , ” according to McFate , the mercenary expert .
“ The reason why groups like Wagner exist , and the reason why people like Erik Prince [ are ] succeeding , is that modern war is getting sneakier and mercenaries and groups like Wagner are a great way to get things done in the shadows , ” McFate said .
Libya has been divided and in conflict since the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Moammar Gadhafi in 2011 .
The United Nations and most of the international community , including the U.S , recognize the Government of National Accord in the Libyan capital Tripoli as the country ’ s official leaders .
But the eastern portion of the country is led by strongman Khalifa Hifter , who tried last year to take Tripoli .
Both sides are backed by foreign powers that have continually violated a U.N. embargo on military support .
Turkey and Qatar have supported the GNA , while Russia , the United Arab Emirates @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Last spring , Hifter ’ s forces , the Libyan National Army , moved to take Tripoli , but were thwarted within days .
Hifter turned to Moscow and Wagner .
Americans are prohibited from aiding either side of the conflict without U.S. government authorization .
At the same time , Prince sought to provide a force in Mozambique , where the government has been fighting a small insurgency over the past two years .
President Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique flew to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in August 2019 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and Russia agreed to send military aid .
Russian military hardware and Russian nationals working for Wagner arrived in Mozambique in September , according to news reports .
After Wagner lost more than a dozen fighters in Mozambique , Prince sent a proposal to the Russian firm offering to supply a ground force as well as aviation-based surveillance , according to documents viewed by The Intercept and a person familiar with Prince ’ s proposal .
Prince has also served as an adviser to the de facto ruler of the United Arab @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , known as MBZ , for more than a decade .
Under bin Zayed ’ s leadership , the UAE , a close regional ally of the U.S. , has intervened militarily in several regional wars in the Middle East and Africa .
A pariah during the Obama administration , Prince was taken in by the Emirati crown prince and awarded a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars to create and train a presidential guard for the royal family .
He was later removed for mismanagement , among other reasons .
Prince @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is co-chair of Frontier Services Group , a Hong-Kong based logistics company he founded and whose largest investor is the Chinese government .
The Intercept has previously reported that the U.S. government has investigated Prince for his ties to China ’ s intelligence service .
The conflicts between Prince ’ s commercial interests and the goals of the many governments that retain his services have piled up as Prince has tried to sell military and mercenary capabilities around the world .
FSG , for example , signed a contract for fishing rights in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exploring defense contracts there .
The fishing contract has since been dissolved , according to the company .
“ The conflicts of interest are deep and threaten democracy when you have a free agent going between the U.S. and its main power rivals , ” said McFate .
“ It would never clear an intelligence community background check .
This is a dangerous thing for any democracy .
”

Erik Prince, founder of the private security firm Blackwater and a Trump administration adviser, has sought in recent months to provide military services to a sanctioned Russian mercenary firm in at least two African conflicts, according to three people with knowledge of the efforts.
Prince, who is the brother of Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, met earlier this year with a top official of Russia’s Wagner Group and offered his mercenary forces to support the firm’s operations in Libya and Mozambique, according to two people familiar with Prince’s offer.
Wagner officials said they are not interested in working with Prince, three people familiar with their decision told The Intercept.
A lawyer for Prince denied that his client met anyone from Wagner.
The Wagner Group is a semi-private military force that operates in countries or conflicts where the Russian government seeks plausible deniability for its activities. It is often equipped and supported directly by the Russian Ministry of Defense, according to reports and experts who track Wagner’s activities. The U.S. State Department website also lists Wagner as an entity connected to the “Defense Sector of the Government of the Russian Federation.” Any business relationship between Prince and Wagner would, in effect, make the influential Trump administration adviser a subcontractor to the Russian military.
In recent years, the Russian government has deployed Wagner to several African countries, Ukraine, and Syria, where the U.S. military killed dozens of Wagner fighters in 2018 after the Russians and their Syrian allies attacked an oil facility that the United States was defending.
“Wagner Group is an instrument of Russian policy. It works under the GRU, which is the Russian military intelligence,” said Sean McFate, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former military contractor who has written about mercenaries.
In attempting to do business with Wagner, Prince may have exposed himself to legal liability.
In attempting to do business with Wagner, Prince may also have exposed himself to legal liability. In 2017, the Trump administration sanctioned Wagner, as well as its founder and head Dmitry Utkin, for having “recruited and sent soldiers to fight alongside [Russian-backed] separatists in eastern Ukraine” during the 2014 Russian invasion. The Russian government denied involvement in the invasion, even as its forces occupied and took control of Crimea, also in Ukrainian territory, in violation of international law.
The sanctions prohibit individuals or companies from providing “financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order.” They also forbid anyone “to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf” of Wagner. The 2017 addition of Wagner to the sanctions list builds on a 2014 executive order signed by President Barack Obama.
“In my experience, the act of soliciting from a sanctioned party would indeed be an apparent violation,” said Brian O’Toole, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council and former senior sanctions official at the Treasury Department. “Whether you make that [legal] case is an entirely separate matter,” he said, adding that pitching business to Wagner “would seem to be a fairly egregious thing to do.”
When Prince met with Wagner leadership, he was already under federal investigation for violating arms trafficking regulations. The proposal to the Russian firm also raises questions about whether Trump administration officials authorized the meeting or were aware of Prince’s efforts to work with the group.
A former Navy SEAL who rose to prominence and notoriety as head of the private security firm Blackwater, Prince has been a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump, serving as an unofficial adviser on military and foreign policy issues in Africa, the Middle East, and Afghanistan. Prince was a Trump donor in 2016 and has worked to support the president politically while proposing private military solutions that would benefit his companies financially.
Early in the Trump administration, Prince proposed privatizing the war in Afghanistan and supplying Trump with a private spy service intended to circumvent the U.S. intelligence community. Neither proposal succeeded, despite having support for some of his ideas from senior administration officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
For years, Prince has tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to win military contracts with governments in Africa and the Middle East. Wagner has become an increasingly visible player in the region as Russia’s influence there has grown, allowing the country to operate under the radar at a time when “plausible deniability is more powerful than firepower,” according to McFate, the mercenary expert.
“The reason why groups like Wagner exist is that modern war is getting sneakier and mercenaries are a great way to get things done in the shadows.”
“The reason why groups like Wagner exist, and the reason why people like Erik Prince [are] succeeding, is that modern war is getting sneakier and mercenaries and groups like Wagner are a great way to get things done in the shadows,” McFate said.
Libya has been divided and in conflict since the U.S. and NATO allies removed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. The United Nations and most of the international community, including the U.S, recognize the Government of National Accord in the Libyan capital Tripoli as the country’s official leaders. But the eastern portion of the country is led by strongman Khalifa Hifter, who tried last year to take Tripoli. Both sides are backed by foreign powers that have continually violated a U.N. embargo on military support. Turkey and Qatar have supported the GNA, while Russia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt have backed Hifter.
Last spring, Hifter’s forces, the Libyan National Army, moved to take Tripoli, but were thwarted within days. Hifter turned to Moscow and Wagner. Americans are prohibited from aiding either side of the conflict without U.S. government authorization.
At the same time, Prince sought to provide a force in Mozambique, where the government has been fighting a small insurgency over the past two years. President Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique flew to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in August 2019. The countries signed several trade pacts, and Russia agreed to send military aid. Russian military hardware and Russian nationals working for Wagner arrived in Mozambique in September, according to news reports.
After Wagner lost more than a dozen fighters in Mozambique, Prince sent a proposal to the Russian firm offering to supply a ground force as well as aviation-based surveillance, according to documents viewed by The Intercept and a person familiar with Prince’s proposal.
Prince has also served as an adviser to the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, known as MBZ, for more than a decade. Under bin Zayed’s leadership, the UAE, a close regional ally of the U.S., has intervened militarily in several regional wars in the Middle East and Africa. A pariah during the Obama administration, Prince was taken in by the Emirati crown prince and awarded a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars to create and train a presidential guard for the royal family. He was later removed for mismanagement, among other reasons.
Prince also has ties to China. He is co-chair of Frontier Services Group, a Hong-Kong based logistics company he founded and whose largest investor is the Chinese government. The Intercept has previously reported that the U.S. government has investigated Prince for his ties to China’s intelligence service. The conflicts between Prince’s commercial interests and the goals of the many governments that retain his services have piled up as Prince has tried to sell military and mercenary capabilities around the world. FSG, for example, signed a contract for fishing rights in Mozambique around the same time Prince began exploring defense contracts there. The fishing contract has since been dissolved, according to the company.
“The conflicts of interest are deep and threaten democracy when you have a free agent going between the U.S. and its main power rivals,” said McFate. “It would never clear an intelligence community background check. This is a dangerous thing for any democracy.”


theintercept--2020-04-13--Domestic Violence Is on the Rise With Coronavirus Lockdown. The Responses Are Missing the Point.

To say that we have seen a spike in domestic violence during the coronavirus pandemic would be an understatement .
In the weeks since populations worldwide have been directed to “ stay home ” to prevent the virus ’ s spread , cases of domestic violence have surged — and that ’ s reported cases .
This should come as no surprise : Women — and it is predominantly women who are victimized — are confined to isolated homes with abusive partners whose coercive and physically violent tendencies are enabled and further inflamed by economic stressors .
Supportive community ties @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shelter systems , and social services are overwhelmed and congenitally underfunded .
According to statistics released by the United Nations , reports of domestic violence in France increased 30 percent following the country ’ s lockdown on March 17 ; during the first two weeks of lockdowns in Spain , the emergency number for domestic violence received 18 percent more calls ; and help lines in Singapore have received 30 percent more calls .
As NBC News reported , law enforcement agencies across the U.S. have seen domestic violence cases rise up to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ shadow pandemic , ” as U.N. experts are calling it , knows no borders .
Keep in mind that before the pandemic hit , one in five women who had ever been in a couple reported experiencing sexual or physical violence by an intimate partner in the last year .
Consider , too , that 50 percent of domestic abuse cases go unreported .
As with so many devastating consequences of the coronavirus pandemic , this moment has revealed and exacerbated underlying , preexisting conditions of structural violence .
The staggering recent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the presumption that the nuclear household is a place of safety to be preserved — only occasionally a site of violence .
But we can ’ t think of the pre-pandemic prevalence of domestic violence as a tolerable “ normal ” to aim towards .
Instead , there need to be longer-term responses offering social and economic infrastructure and services , so that women and children are not dependent on the patriarchal household structure for survival .
Safer spaces of cohabitation and community must be recognized and supported .
“ Far from a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ ideology , ” feminist theorist Sophie Lewis wrote last month , “ the pandemic is an acutely important time to provision , evacuate and generally empower survivors of—and refugees from—the nuclear household.
” This means recognizing governmental responses to the dramatic spike in domestic violence as insufficient stopgaps .
Secretary-General António Guterres delivered a public statement , calling on governments to “ put women ’ s safety first as they respond to the pandemic.
” His message was accompanied by a set of recommendations , including that governments “ increase investment in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” “ declare shelters as essential services , ” and continue to prosecute abusers and hold in prisons individuals convicted of violence against women .
Numerous national and local governments , alongside nongovernmental organizations , are already acting on such advice .
Canada is keeping domestic violence shelters open and diverting $ 50 million to support shelters for victims of domestic and gender-based violence .
The U.K. , France , and Australia have dedicated funding to organizations providing services .
France is also covering the cost of temporarily housing survivors in empty hotel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the practical to the carceral — are short-term responses to a heightened state of emergency .
It ’ s a grim state of affairs , when it ’ s deemed necessary for the safety of survivors to keep convicted abusers behind bars , while prisons become petri dishes for Covid-19 .
The need for well-funded and robust support services for survivors , including psychological care and economic resources , can not be underestimated .
But interventions can not begin and end after the point of abuse : The conditions of gender-based and sexual @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sunday statement , the U.N. secretary-general said , “ I appeal for peace in homes around the world.
” His comment brought to mind the words of late philosopher Bernard Williams : “ To say peace when there is no peace , ” wrote Williams , “ is to say nothing.
” The long-term plague of domestic violence is too deadly and rampant for responses that amount to nothing .
Tackling this scourge will be no easy task ; it requires no less than critiquing the nuclear household and the traditional family form @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happy family units and intimate partnerships are not nearly in a great enough majority to consider these sorts of households de facto safe sites , which are only occasionally ruined by abusive bad apples .
Patriarchal violence is too common for such an ideology to hold up .
Feminist , anti-capitalist responses that call for “ family abolition ” produce understandable conservative backlash .
Concerns from parts of the left about the idea of “ family abolition ” have also been raised .
At a time when the state is committed to tearing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ removing black people from their homes through mass incarceration , there ’ s a clear need to protect and defend so many families .
Yet the abolitionist call is not to break up loving and supportive familial bonds , but to add to them : to recognize that the nuclear family should not be the presumed center of social support , or even childcare .
Capitalism has always relied on the nuclear family form for its reproduction .
But if the pandemic reveals anything , it ’ s that we can ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to also serve the people .
Looking beyond pandemic lockdowns , we should fight for policies that socialize — or , indeed , communize — child and elder care .
These policies can provide women the economic and social support to never have to rely on an abusive partner for survival in the first place by making sure the burden of this care work is not confined to the domestic sphere .
We should insist on the legitimacy of homes and living situations that are built on more than blood ties and coupledom @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will again — and perhaps again — be forced to “ shelter in place.
” When that happens , the struggle for those places of supposed shelter to be free from the threat of gender-based and sexual violence will entail changing societal assumptions about what constitutes a good home .

Photo: Katherine Frey/The Washington Post via Getty Images
To say that we have seen a spike in domestic violence during the coronavirus pandemic would be an understatement. In the weeks since populations worldwide have been directed to “stay home” to prevent the virus’s spread, cases of domestic violence have surged — and that’s reported cases. This should come as no surprise: Women — and it is predominantly women who are victimized — are confined to isolated homes with abusive partners whose coercive and physically violent tendencies are enabled and further inflamed by economic stressors. Supportive community ties are severed, while emergency services, shelter systems, and social services are overwhelmed and congenitally underfunded.
According to statistics released by the United Nations, reports of domestic violence in France increased 30 percent following the country’s lockdown on March 17; during the first two weeks of lockdowns in Spain, the emergency number for domestic violence received 18 percent more calls; and help lines in Singapore have received 30 percent more calls. As NBC News reported, law enforcement agencies across the U.S. have seen domestic violence cases rise up to 35 percent in recent weeks.
We can’t think of the pre-pandemic prevalence of domestic violence as a tolerable “normal” to aim towards.
This “shadow pandemic,” as U.N. experts are calling it, knows no borders. Keep in mind that before the pandemic hit, one in five women who had ever been in a couple reported experiencing sexual or physical violence by an intimate partner in the last year. Consider, too, that 50 percent of domestic abuse cases go unreported.
As with so many devastating consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, this moment has revealed and exacerbated underlying, preexisting conditions of structural violence. The staggering recent statistics should produce a societal reckoning with the presumption that the nuclear household is a place of safety to be preserved — only occasionally a site of violence. But we can’t think of the pre-pandemic prevalence of domestic violence as a tolerable “normal” to aim towards.
Instead, there need to be longer-term responses offering social and economic infrastructure and services, so that women and children are not dependent on the patriarchal household structure for survival. Safer spaces of cohabitation and community must be recognized and supported.
“Far from a time to acquiesce to ‘family values’ ideology,” feminist theorist Sophie Lewis wrote last month, “the pandemic is an acutely important time to provision, evacuate and generally empower survivors of—and refugees from—the nuclear household.” This means recognizing governmental responses to the dramatic spike in domestic violence as insufficient stopgaps.
On Sunday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres delivered a public statement, calling on governments to “put women’s safety first as they respond to the pandemic.” His message was accompanied by a set of recommendations, including that governments “increase investment in online services and civil society organizations,” “declare shelters as essential services,” and continue to prosecute abusers and hold in prisons individuals convicted of violence against women.
Numerous national and local governments, alongside nongovernmental organizations, are already acting on such advice. Canada is keeping domestic violence shelters open and diverting $50 million to support shelters for victims of domestic and gender-based violence. The U.K., France, and Australia have dedicated funding to organizations providing services. France is also covering the cost of temporarily housing survivors in empty hotel rooms.
Yet the recommendations — from the practical to the carceral — are short-term responses to a heightened state of emergency. It’s a grim state of affairs, when it’s deemed necessary for the safety of survivors to keep convicted abusers behind bars, while prisons become petri dishes for Covid-19.
The need for well-funded and robust support services for survivors, including psychological care and economic resources, cannot be underestimated. But interventions cannot begin and end after the point of abuse: The conditions of gender-based and sexual violence must be disrupted.
In his Sunday statement, the U.N. secretary-general said, “I appeal for peace in homes around the world.” His comment brought to mind the words of late philosopher Bernard Williams: “To say peace when there is no peace,” wrote Williams, “is to say nothing.” The long-term plague of domestic violence is too deadly and rampant for responses that amount to nothing.
Tackling this scourge will be no easy task; it requires no less than critiquing the nuclear household and the traditional family form. Those lucky enough to live in happy family units and intimate partnerships are not nearly in a great enough majority to consider these sorts of households de facto safe sites, which are only occasionally ruined by abusive bad apples.
Patriarchal violence is too common for such an ideology to hold up. Feminist, anti-capitalist responses that call for “family abolition” produce understandable conservative backlash. Concerns from parts of the left about the idea of “family abolition” have also been raised. At a time when the state is committed to tearing apart migrant families at the border and removing black people from their homes through mass incarceration, there’s a clear need to protect and defend so many families.
Yet the abolitionist call is not to break up loving and supportive familial bonds, but to add to them: to recognize that the nuclear family should not be the presumed center of social support, or even childcare. Capitalism has always relied on the nuclear family form for its reproduction. But if the pandemic reveals anything, it’s that we can’t rely on the structures that serve capital to also serve the people.
Looking beyond pandemic lockdowns, we should fight for policies that socialize — or, indeed, communize — child and elder care. These policies can provide women the economic and social support to never have to rely on an abusive partner for survival in the first place by making sure the burden of this care work is not confined to the domestic sphere. We should insist on the legitimacy of homes and living situations that are built on more than blood ties and coupledom. It seems likely that whole communities will again — and perhaps again — be forced to “shelter in place.” When that happens, the struggle for those places of supposed shelter to be free from the threat of gender-based and sexual violence will entail changing societal assumptions about what constitutes a good home.


theintercept--2020-04-13--Despite Coronavirus, Brooklyn Machine Pushing for In-Person Hearings to Knock Insurgent Off Ballot

In Kings County , which comprises the borough of Brooklyn , a member of the local Democratic committee and another person connected to the campaign of a party-backed candidate have filed complaints with the Board of Elections against the candidates running against her in a special , nonpartisan election for an open city council seat .
In that race , local Democrats have coalesced around Darma Diaz , a state Democratic Party committee member and district leader who opposes new tenants rights laws and has criticized the $ 15 minimum wage .
The petition challenges must be reviewed in person @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and , even with effective orders in the city to stay at home , the candidates will be required to attend hearings later this month to defend their candidacies .
If not , they risk being kicked off the ballot .
The Brooklyn Democratic machine is quietly trying to knock insurgent candidates off the ballot in upcoming elections — even as New York City grapples with an unprecedented crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic , including the deaths of three Board of Elections employees to Covid-19 .
Diaz is running against four @ @ @ @ @ @ @ organizer Sandy Nurse , whose platform focuses on expanding affordable housing , funding for public schools , and environmental sustainability and adaptability , and additional rights for green card holders .
Kings County Democratic Committee member Ariana Zapata , and Alexandra Alvarado , a local resident , filed petitions against all of Diaz ’ s four opponents , listing the address for Diaz ’ s campaign and committee office on their objections .
Diaz ’ s campaign did not respond to requests for comment .
The scheduled hearings come as states across the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of health officials ’ recommendations that people stay at home as much as possible to curb the spread of coronavirus .
New York has postponed its presidential primary , along with five special elections for federal and state legislature , from April 28 to June 23 .
Members of New York ’ s congressional delegation , including House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries , and Reps. Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney , have signed onto a letter from the Brooklyn Young Democrats calling on the Kings County Democratic Committee chair and Gov .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams also signed the letter .
Nurse , who entered the race in February , is caught in a wave of confusion surrounding the number of signatures required to get on the election ballot .
While New York typically requires 450 signatures , the threshold was lowered to 270 in light of the pandemic .
She collected 339 signatures ahead of the March 17 deadline , the same day Mayor Bill de Blasio began telling residents to prepare for potential shelter-in-place orders — but due to city @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was unclear whether that lowered threshold applies to Nurse ’ s election .
Her campaign has asked the city and Cuomo to clarify the number of petition signatures required for her election .
While she has not yet seen the specific claims in Zapata and Alvarado ’ s petitions , she worries that changes in campaign procedures because of the coronavirus may get in the way of her candidacy .
“ We were trying to do the right thing , by ending early , ” Nurse told The Intercept , noting that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the coronavirus pandemic .
“ And it feels like we ’ re getting penalized for that , ” she said .
“ It would be a shame to not even be able to participate in the process because of a technicality.
” track record as an advocate for tenants rights but has recently moved into consulting for real estate and criticized new tenant protection laws as “ anti-landlord ” on social media .
She has said that new laws prohibiting landlords from selling eviction data to private firms , commonly known as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ landlord lose “ its glory.
” Diaz has also criticized the $ 15 minimum wage .
The seat , in Brooklyn ’ s 37th District , was left open when former Council Member Rafael Espinal stepped down in January to take over as executive director of the Freelancers Union .
Soon after , he backed Diaz , who has the official endorsement of the Kings County Democratic Committee , as well as personal support from the committee ’ s newly elected chair , District 42 Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte .
While petition objections @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — part of New York City elections , critics have called on the Kings County Democratic Party to withdraw its challenges , citing the danger to municipal employees and the candidates from having to attend an in-person hearing in the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic .
The hearings are currently scheduled for April 21 , 22 , and 23 .
( In Kings County , there are currently 19 pending objections with specifications filed against 13 candidates running on conservative , liberal , and third-party platforms for seats in Congress , the state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Council , and state party committee , according to county records . )
“ It is utterly disgraceful that we are playing politics during this time , ” said Camille Rivera , who is consulting for Nurse ’ s campaign as a partner with New Deal Strategies , a progressive firm .
“ Challenging petitions is the exact opposite of democracy , ” she said .
“ Democracy is about voting and access to voting .
Having people go and look at challenges of petitions is not.
” Rivera called on local officials @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of public safety .
“ The Brooklyn Democratic Party has the opportunity to reverse its course and think about the public , the voters , and all of the candidates , by asking them to stand down and reverse their petition challenges , ” Rivera said .
“ None of this is hyperbole , ” said a Democratic strategist close to the Brooklyn race .
“ It isn ’ t about the threat of people ’ s lives thrown into jeopardy .
It ’ s happened .
This has had real human costs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they keep it up.
” Still , the party machine has refused to budge .
In a statement on April 4 , Bichotte , the committee chair , extended condolences for the families of the Board of Elections employees who died and outlined plans to move forward with preparation for upcoming elections .
The board , Bichotte said , would rotate staff and follow social-distancing guidelines to continue reviewing petitions and planning for early voting .
“ In this time of unprecedented national crisis , we must retain the democratic processes of government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rights as Americans , ” she said .
Bichotte did not respond to a request for comment .
“ This is a straightforward answer with a simple solution .
And hopeful they do the right thing here , ” the strategist said .
“ Doing the right thing here is easy .
Punting and dealing with unknown consequences is what is going to be hard.
” leader and committee person for the 54th Assembly District , currently directs housing services for the Queens social service nonprofit , Overcoming Love Ministries , which partners @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Homeless Services .
Diaz , once an aide to former Assembly member Darryl Towns , is also a landlord and founded a real estate management consulting company .
She previously worked in organizing for tenants rights and was a founding member of the Coalition for Community Advancement , a tenants ’ rights group that advocated for affordable housing and preservation .
Diaz has described herself as a “ good landlord ” and has spoken in the past about the impacts of New York ’ s investment in rezoning geared toward wealthy investors , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and middle-income homeowners to sell their properties .
In a 2016 interview with the Gotham Gazette while Diaz was working with the coalition in Cypress Hills , she said real estate speculators were “ capitalizing on people who may be financially strapped ” and driving displacement .
Despite her record as an advocate for tenants , Diaz has recently argued on social media against raising the minimum wage and called tenant protection laws “ anti-landlord.
” In October , Diaz shared a post on Facebook about new rent laws aimed at protecting tenants @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which landlords can sell eviction data to private firms , writing , “ Stay woke…being a homeowner is lossing it ’ s [ sic ] glory .
” In another post from December , Diaz shared an article titled , “ Landlords can ’ t ask for ‘ last month ’ s rent ’ plus security deposit , thanks to new rent laws , ” and wrote : “ Lawmakers are looking out for who ?
All these new anti-landlord laws make the American Dream scary and undesirable.
” Most recently , Diaz @ @ @ @ @ @ @ property managers .
Diaz is the registered agent for the firm People United Logistically for Social Equality Consulting Corporation , or PULSE , which was actively registered as of February 24 .
The group ’ s website says it provides services in New York City , New Jersey , and Puerto Rico , including “ housing and retail advocacy , outreach services , and social service training for individuals , groups , property managers , merchant groups and more.
” Several pages on the site only have placeholder text .
Nurse , one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ support of protections for renters and expanded relief in response to the ongoing pandemic .
She ’ s the co-founder of BK ROT , a bike-powered compost collection service , and Mayday Space , a Bushwick hub for community events and organizing .
Her organizing work has focused on issues of food security , unemployment , and developing community spaces .
She ’ s been endorsed by New York Rep. Nydia Velázquez and state Sen. Julia Salazar , as well as Council Member Antonio Reynoso , along with groups like Make the Road @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the New Kings Democrats .
Now , Nurse ’ s campaign has pivoted to responding to the needs of those in the community , she said , delivering groceries and prescriptions , connecting people to services for housing , child care , and legal support .
“ We ’ re essentially kind of turning into responders in this moment , ” Nurse said .
“ That ’ s taking up so much of our time .
And the only other thing that ’ s kind of absorbing all of our energy is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ candidates in the race are Misba Abdin , co-founder and CEO of a city-based organization serving low-income youth and adults ; Kimberly Council , who ran against Espinal in 2013 ; and Rick Echevarría , a former staffer for de Blasio .
Council and Echevarría terminated campaign activity in the special election earlier this month , according to the New York City Campaign Finance Board , but remain on the ballot in the primary election for the same seat .
The winner of the city council special election will serve through the end @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the primary will go on to a general election for a term that runs through 2021 .

The Brooklyn Democratic machine is quietly trying to knock insurgent candidates off the ballot in upcoming elections — even as New York City grapples with an unprecedented crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, including the deaths of three Board of Elections employees to Covid-19.
In Kings County, which comprises the borough of Brooklyn, a member of the local Democratic committee and another person connected to the campaign of a party-backed candidate have filed complaints with the Board of Elections against the candidates running against her in a special, nonpartisan election for an open city council seat. In that race, local Democrats have coalesced around Darma Diaz, a state Democratic Party committee member and district leader who opposes new tenants rights laws and has criticized the $15 minimum wage. The petition challenges must be reviewed in person by employees at the Board of Elections, and, even with effective orders in the city to stay at home, the candidates will be required to attend hearings later this month to defend their candidacies. If not, they risk being kicked off the ballot.
The scheduled hearings come as states across the country have postponed in-person elections in light of health officials’ recommendations that people stay at home as much as possible to curb the spread of coronavirus. New York has postponed its presidential primary, along with five special elections for federal and state legislature, from April 28 to June 23. Members of New York’s congressional delegation, including House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries, and Reps. Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, have signed onto a letter from the Brooklyn Young Democrats calling on the Kings County Democratic Committee chair and Gov. Andrew Cuomo to suspend petition challenges. New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams also signed the letter.
Diaz is running against four other people, including carpenter and community organizer Sandy Nurse, whose platform focuses on expanding affordable housing, funding for public schools, and environmental sustainability and adaptability, and additional rights for green card holders. Kings County Democratic Committee member Ariana Zapata, and Alexandra Alvarado, a local resident, filed petitions against all of Diaz’s four opponents, listing the address for Diaz’s campaign and committee office on their objections. Diaz’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
Photo: Brandon Harrison/Courtesy of Sandy Nurse for NYC
Nurse, who entered the race in February, is caught in a wave of confusion surrounding the number of signatures required to get on the election ballot. While New York typically requires 450 signatures, the threshold was lowered to 270 in light of the pandemic. She collected 339 signatures ahead of the March 17 deadline , the same day Mayor Bill de Blasio began telling residents to prepare for potential shelter-in-place orders — but due to city procedures that govern special elections, it was unclear whether that lowered threshold applies to Nurse’s election. Her campaign has asked the city and Cuomo to clarify the number of petition signatures required for her election. While she has not yet seen the specific claims in Zapata and Alvarado’s petitions, she worries that changes in campaign procedures because of the coronavirus may get in the way of her candidacy.
“We were trying to do the right thing, by ending early,” Nurse told The Intercept, noting that the period for petitioning was cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic. “And it feels like we’re getting penalized for that,” she said. “It would be a shame to not even be able to participate in the process because of a technicality.”
Diaz has a track record as an advocate for tenants rights but has recently moved into consulting for real estate and criticized new tenant protection laws as “anti-landlord” on social media. She has said that new laws prohibiting landlords from selling eviction data to private firms, commonly known as a tenant blacklist, made being a landlord lose “its glory.” Diaz has also criticized the $15 minimum wage.
The seat, in Brooklyn’s 37th District, was left open when former Council Member Rafael Espinal stepped down in January to take over as executive director of the Freelancers Union. Soon after, he backed Diaz, who has the official endorsement of the Kings County Democratic Committee, as well as personal support from the committee’s newly elected chair, District 42 Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte.
While petition objections are a normal — and often frivolous — part of New York City elections, critics have called on the Kings County Democratic Party to withdraw its challenges, citing the danger to municipal employees and the candidates from having to attend an in-person hearing in the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. The hearings are currently scheduled for April 21, 22, and 23. (In Kings County, there are currently 19 pending objections with specifications filed against 13 candidates running on conservative, liberal, and third-party platforms for seats in Congress, the state Senate and Assembly, New York City Council, and state party committee, according to county records.)
“It is utterly disgraceful that we are playing politics during this time,” said Camille Rivera, who is consulting for Nurse’s campaign as a partner with New Deal Strategies, a progressive firm. “Challenging petitions is the exact opposite of democracy,” she said. “Democracy is about voting and access to voting. Having people go and look at challenges of petitions is not.”
Rivera called on local officials to drop the objections for the sake of public safety. “The Brooklyn Democratic Party has the opportunity to reverse its course and think about the public, the voters, and all of the candidates, by asking them to stand down and reverse their petition challenges,” Rivera said.
“None of this is hyperbole,” said a Democratic strategist close to the Brooklyn race. “It isn’t about the threat of people’s lives thrown into jeopardy. It’s happened. This has had real human costs, and it could have more if they keep it up.”
Still, the party machine has refused to budge. In a statement on April 4, Bichotte, the committee chair, extended condolences for the families of the Board of Elections employees who died and outlined plans to move forward with preparation for upcoming elections. The board, Bichotte said, would rotate staff and follow social-distancing guidelines to continue reviewing petitions and planning for early voting. “In this time of unprecedented national crisis, we must retain the democratic processes of government and elections less we lose our democratic rights as Americans,” she said. Bichotte did not respond to a request for comment.
“This is a straightforward answer with a simple solution. And hopeful they do the right thing here,” the strategist said. “Doing the right thing here is easy. Punting and dealing with unknown consequences is what is going to be hard.”
Diaz, a Democratic leader and committee person for the 54th Assembly District, currently directs housing services for the Queens social service nonprofit, Overcoming Love Ministries, which partners with the city’s Department of Homeless Services. Diaz, once an aide to former Assembly member Darryl Towns, is also a landlord and founded a real estate management consulting company. She previously worked in organizing for tenants rights and was a founding member of the Coalition for Community Advancement, a tenants’ rights group that advocated for affordable housing and preservation.
Diaz has described herself as a “good landlord” and has spoken in the past about the impacts of New York’s investment in rezoning geared toward wealthy investors, gentrification, and increasing pressure on low- and middle-income homeowners to sell their properties. In a 2016 interview with the Gotham Gazette while Diaz was working with the coalition in Cypress Hills, she said real estate speculators were “capitalizing on people who may be financially strapped” and driving displacement.
Despite her record as an advocate for tenants, Diaz has recently argued on social media against raising the minimum wage and called tenant protection laws “anti-landlord.” In October, Diaz shared a post on Facebook about new rent laws aimed at protecting tenants in New York from a blacklist through which landlords can sell eviction data to private firms, writing, “Stay woke…being a homeowner is lossing it’s [sic] glory .”
In another post from December, Diaz shared an article titled, “Landlords can’t ask for ‘last month’s rent’ plus security deposit, thanks to new rent laws,” and wrote: “Lawmakers are looking out for who? All these new anti-landlord laws make the American Dream scary and undesirable.”
Most recently, Diaz founded a consulting firm providing services to property managers. Diaz is the registered agent for the firm People United Logistically for Social Equality Consulting Corporation, or PULSE, which was actively registered as of February 24. The group’s website says it provides services in New York City, New Jersey, and Puerto Rico, including “housing and retail advocacy, outreach services, and social service training for individuals, groups, property managers, merchant groups and more.” Several pages on the site only have placeholder text.
Nurse, one of her opponents, is vocal in support of protections for renters and expanded relief in response to the ongoing pandemic. She’s the co-founder of BK ROT, a bike-powered compost collection service, and Mayday Space, a Bushwick hub for community events and organizing. Her organizing work has focused on issues of food security, unemployment, and developing community spaces. She’s been endorsed by New York Rep. Nydia Velázquez and state Sen. Julia Salazar, as well as Council Member Antonio Reynoso, along with groups like Make the Road Action, the Working Families Party, and the New Kings Democrats.
Now, Nurse’s campaign has pivoted to responding to the needs of those in the community, she said, delivering groceries and prescriptions, connecting people to services for housing, child care, and legal support. “We’re essentially kind of turning into responders in this moment,” Nurse said. “That’s taking up so much of our time. And the only other thing that’s kind of absorbing all of our energy is these petition challenges.”
The other three candidates in the race are Misba Abdin, co-founder and CEO of a city-based organization serving low-income youth and adults; Kimberly Council, who ran against Espinal in 2013; and Rick Echevarría, a former staffer for de Blasio. Council and Echevarría terminated campaign activity in the special election earlier this month, according to the New York City Campaign Finance Board, but remain on the ballot in the primary election for the same seat. The winner of the city council special election will serve through the end of the year, while the winner of the primary will go on to a general election for a term that runs through 2021.


theintercept--2020-04-12--U.S. Got More Confirmed “Index Cases” of Coronavirus From Europe Than From China

What Trump doesn ’ t mention , however , is his administration ’ s failure to restrict travelers from Europe until it was too late .
An investigation by The Intercept shows that travel from Europe was a key facilitator of the virus ’ s spread in the U.S. — a large amount of the first Covid-19 cases in the U.S. can be traced to Europe .
While the China restrictions operated as an attempt to close the front door to infections from the nation where the pandemic started , the back door — travel from Europe , where the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — remained wide open until the middle of March and can be connected to a surge of cases in the U.S. , especially in the New York area .
When pressed about his delayed response to the coronavirus pandemic , President Donald Trump has repeatedly cited the U.S. travel restrictions imposed on China , which went into effect on February 1 .
“ Something we did very well is when we stopped the inflow from China at a very early level , ” Trump said on March 29 .
“ That was a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thing to do.
” The Intercept reviewed hundreds of media reports detailing the first recorded coronavirus cases — known as the “ index cases ” — in U.S. states and territories .
European travel preceded the index cases in at least 13 states and territories , compared to only five from China .
There were more imported index cases from cruise ships ( six ) than from China , while Italy accounted for at least 10 of the first Covid-19 cases .
For instance , Missouri ’ s first case was a young @ @ @ @ @ @ @ while a high school trip to Milan was behind Rhode Island ’ s index case .
Travelers from Italy brought it to Florida , Georgia , Oklahoma , Colorado , New Hampshire , and South Carolina .
Italian tourists brought Covid-19 to Puerto Rico , and a Navy reservist stationed in Italy brought it to Maine .
A review of the known index cases also shows that the coronavirus often spread from the northeastern United States , indicating a chain of transmission from China to Europe to the East Coast of the U.S. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ states .
Many state governments have declined to publicly share data on the provenance of their early cases , but some , like New Mexico , Kansas , North Dakota , and Idaho , confirmed that their first cases had links to New York or the northeastern U.S. to when flight restrictions went into effect on the Schengen zone ( the 26 European states without internal border checks ) and Britain and Ireland , on March 14 and March 17 respectively , more than 10,000 direct flights from Europe had arrived in 12 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from tracking agency FlightAware .
Though this number includes some cargo flights , their proportion to passenger flights is very low .
Occupancy data from Air France/KLM shows that those flights might have carried an estimated 1,000,000 people into the country .
In the six weeks prior to the European travel bans , the U.S. was exposed to a massive amount of travelers from a highly infected region .
During that time , there were almost no checks in international airports for passengers coming from Europe , as American authorities focused their screening @ @ @ @ @ @ @ travel restrictions were mostly cosmetic anyway — the Chinese government banned flights from the Hubei region on January 23 and was sharply reducing its cases through harsh lockdowns and quarantines .
The Trump administration appears to have considered — and rejected — an early European travel ban in January .
The Washington Post reported that Matthew Pottinger , the deputy national security adviser , had proposed a travel ban on affected European countries in late January , which was supported by health officials but was rebuffed by Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a period of calamitous early inaction , he has sought to focus the blame on China , and on Saturday he published a tweet trying to discredit a New York Times story on the role of European travel in New York ’ s epidemic .
The impact from Europe was particularly acute on the East Coast of the U.S. , where many of those flights landed .
From February 5 to the implementation of the travel bans on March 14 and March 17 , nearly 4,000 direct flights from Europe arrived at New @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Newark Liberty International in New Jersey , far more than any other metropolitan area in the country .
San Francisco , by contrast , where the caseload has been kept relatively low , had a little over 600 flights from Europe in that same time period .
While San Francisco also took stricter preventative measures earlier on , like issuing its stay-at-home order five days before New York did , it was also subject to less exposure overall .
Six weeks of coronavirus exposure from Europe A new study by researchers at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , out of 91 patients studied , the vast majority of New York City ’ s coronavirus strains were identical to ones found in Europe .
This provides additional evidence that Europe was the main source of Covid-19 in what became the pandemic ’ s global epicenter .
“ We found that multiple chains of transmission were coming about two thirds from Europe , and the other third some from Asia and some from within other states of the United States , ” said Dr. Adriana Heguy , director of the Genome Technology @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the sequencing team .
The proportion of strains from China was low , while there were many different European countries present .
“ You name the European country and it basically shows up : France , Austria , Netherlands , Italy , Madrid , I believe we had one .
It was from everywhere in Europe , ” she said .
Dr. Heguy said that the volume of flights from Europe is “ probably the most likely explanation ” for why New York City became the pandemic ’ s epicenter , adding that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the U.S. from late January .
“ It ’ s very possible that there was already community transmission going on six to eight weeks ” before recorded index cases , she said .

When pressed about his delayed response to the coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump has repeatedly cited the U.S. travel restrictions imposed on China, which went into effect on February 1. “Something we did very well is when we stopped the inflow from China at a very early level,” Trump said on March 29. “That was a good thing to do, a great thing to do.”
What Trump doesn’t mention, however, is his administration’s failure to restrict travelers from Europe until it was too late. An investigation by The Intercept shows that travel from Europe was a key facilitator of the virus’s spread in the U.S. — a large amount of the first Covid-19 cases in the U.S. can be traced to Europe. While the China restrictions operated as an attempt to close the front door to infections from the nation where the pandemic started, the back door — travel from Europe, where the virus took hold particularly fiercely in Italy — remained wide open until the middle of March and can be connected to a surge of cases in the U.S., especially in the New York area.
The Intercept reviewed hundreds of media reports detailing the first recorded coronavirus cases — known as the “index cases” — in U.S. states and territories. European travel preceded the index cases in at least 13 states and territories, compared to only six from China. There were as many imported index cases from cruise ships (six) as from China, while Italy accounted for at least 10 of the first Covid-19 cases.
For instance, Missouri’s first case was a young woman who studied abroad in Italy, while a high school trip to Milan was behind Rhode Island’s index case. Travelers from Italy brought it to Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. Italian tourists brought Covid-19 to Puerto Rico, and a Navy reservist stationed in Italy brought it to Maine.
A review of the known index cases also shows that the coronavirus often spread from the northeastern United States, indicating a chain of transmission from China to Europe to the East Coast of the U.S., and from there to other U.S. states. Many state governments have declined to publicly share data on the provenance of their early cases, but some, like New Mexico, Kansas, North Dakota, and Idaho, confirmed that their first cases had links to New York or the northeastern U.S.
Index Cases in the United States
Total China 5 Cruise ships 6 Italy 10 Other Europe 3 Total Europe 13
From February 1 to when flight restrictions went into effect on the Schengen zone (the 26 European states without internal border checks) and Britain and Ireland, on March 14 and March 17 respectively, more than 10,000 direct flights from Europe had arrived in 12 major American airports, according to data from tracking agency FlightAware. Though this number includes some cargo flights, their proportion to passenger flights is very low. Occupancy data from Air France/KLM shows that those flights might have carried an estimated 1,000,000 people into the country.
In the six weeks prior to the European travel bans, the U.S. was exposed to a massive amount of travelers from a highly infected region. During that time, there were almost no checks in international airports for passengers coming from Europe, as American authorities focused their screening efforts on China travelers. The China travel restrictions were mostly cosmetic anyway — the Chinese government banned flights from the Hubei region on January 23 and was sharply reducing its cases through harsh lockdowns and quarantines.
The Trump administration appears to have considered — and rejected — an early European travel ban in January. The Washington Post reported that Matthew Pottinger, the deputy national security adviser, had proposed a travel ban on affected European countries in late January, which was supported by health officials but was rebuffed by Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. As Trump faces increased criticism for a period of calamitous early inaction, he has sought to focus the blame on China, and on Saturday he published a tweet trying to discredit a New York Times story on the role of European travel in New York’s epidemic.
The impact from Europe was particularly acute on the East Coast of the U.S., where many of those flights landed. From February 5 to the implementation of the travel bans on March 14 and March 17, nearly 4,000 direct flights from Europe arrived at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport and Newark Liberty International in New Jersey, far more than any other metropolitan area in the country. San Francisco, by contrast, where the caseload has been kept relatively low, had a little over 600 flights from Europe in that same time period. While San Francisco also took stricter preventative measures earlier on, like issuing its stay-at-home order five days before New York did, it was also subject to less exposure overall.
Six weeks of coronavirus exposure from Europe
Destination airport Date Original departure Numbers of flights JFK Airport 2/5 to 3/13 Schengen 1,569 2/5 to 3/16 U.K. and Ireland 1,189 Total 2,758 O’Hare International Airport 2/5 to 3/13 Schengen 585 2/5 to 3/16 U.K. and Ireland 188 Total 773 San Francisco International Airport 2/5 to 3/13 Schengen 351 2/5 to 3/16 U.K. and Ireland 278 Total 629 Los Angeles International Airport 2/5 to 3/13 Schengen 264 2/5 to 3/16 U.K. and Ireland 419 Total 683 Seattle-Tacoma International Airport 2/5 to 3/13 Schengen 147 2/5 to 3/16 U.K. and Ireland 114 Total 261 Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport 2/5 to 3/13 Schengen 563 2/5 to 3/16 U.K. and Ireland 183 Total 746 Newark Liberty International Airport 2/5 to 3/13 Schengen 861 2/5 to 3/16 U.K. and Ireland 448 Total 1,200 Washington Dulles International Airport 2/5 to 3/13 Schengen 525 2/5 to 3/16 U.K. and Ireland 310 Total 809 Boston Logan International Airport 2/5 to 3/13 Schengen 305 2/5 to 3/16 U.K. and Ireland 401 Total 706 Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport 2/5 to 3/13 Schengen 104 2/5 to 3/16 U.K. and Ireland 171 Total 275 Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport 2/5 to 3/13 Schengen 247 2/5 to 3/16 U.K. and Ireland 39 Total 286 Miami International Airport 2/5 to 3/13 Schengen 661 2/5 to 3/16 U.K. and Ireland 276 Total 916 Total flights from Schengen and U.K. to USA 10,042
A new study by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine shows that, out of 91 patients studied, the vast majority of New York City’s coronavirus strains were identical to ones found in Europe. This provides additional evidence that Europe was the main source of Covid-19 in what became the pandemic’s global epicenter.
“We found that multiple chains of transmission were coming about two thirds from Europe, and the other third some from Asia and some from within other states of the United States,” said Dr. Adriana Heguy, director of the Genome Technology Center at NYU Langone and leader of the sequencing team. The proportion of strains from China was low, while there were many different European countries present. “You name the European country and it basically shows up: France, Austria, Netherlands, Italy, Madrid, I believe we had one. It was from everywhere in Europe,” she said.
Dr. Heguy said that the volume of flights from Europe is “probably the most likely explanation” for why New York City became the pandemic’s epicenter, adding that the virus might have been spreading in the U.S. from late January. “It’s very possible that there was already community transmission going on six to eight weeks” before recorded index cases, she said.
Read Our Complete Coverage The Coronavirus Crisis
Britain was one of the last European countries to implement preventative measures like strict lockdowns, and has paid the price with some 10,000 deaths and the intensive care hospitalization of its prime minister, Boris Johnson (who is now out of the hospital). Among the nations of Europe, Britain has by far the most extensive air links to the U.S. There were at least 3,211 flights from London to the U.S. from February 5 to March 17, accounting for nearly a third of total European flights to the U.S. during that time frame. This means that one of the European countries that presented the biggest risks to the U.S. was actually excluded from the first European travel ban.
Even when the European travel bans were implemented, flights from Europe still carried a large number of Americans from virus hotspots, because U.S. citizens were not subject to them. There have been at least 246 flights from Britain, Ireland, and the Schengen zone to JFK alone after the bans. There are more daily flights from Europe than from China.
When the European travel bans went into place, TSA checks were implemented at U.S. airports, forcing some passengers to wait for hours in crowded airports, fill out forms, and answer questions from officials in protective gear. Bottlenecks formed at arrival terminals, potentially further fueling the spread of the outbreak as thousands of travelers from affected countries crammed together in tight spaces. In other words, even when a ban was belatedly imposed, it was done in a way that likely increased the number of people exposed to the virus.
When Cherie Saulter, a PhD student at American University, flew from Lisbon, Portugal to Washington, D.C. on March 15, she and her other passengers were given printouts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with basic information on the novel coronavirus. They waited for 1.5 hours to clear a crowded customs area. “The majority of people were not social distancing,” Saulter told The Intercept. “It would have been pretty impossible to stay six feet away from people on all sides because of the way the lines were set up.”
Correction: April 16, 2020
This story has been corrected to reflect that California’s index case was from China rather than from community spread.