As fears of the coronavirus spreading like wildfire inside detention facilities mount, inmates are demanding more supplies like soap and toilet paper.
ProPublica: ICE Detainee Says Migrants Are Going On A Hunger Strike For Soap
In an audio recording obtained by ProPublica, an immigrant held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention in New Jersey complains that he and other detainees are on a hunger strike to try to obtain soap and toilet paper in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic — and that guards reportedly have told detainees, “Well, you’re going to have to die of something.” The audio was recorded when Ronal Umaña, a 30-year-old immigrant from El Salvador currently being held at the Hudson County Correctional Facility in New Jersey, placed a personal call to an advocate on Sunday. The advocate provided the audio to ProPublica. (Lind, 3/23)
Meanwhile —
The Wall Street Journal: Trump Administration Pauses Court Proceedings For Asylum Seekers
The Trump administration is postponing all court proceedings for asylum seekers in its “Remain in Mexico” program amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. The program, formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, is a signature Trump administration policy allowing the government to send asylum-seeking migrants back over the border to Mexico. There they are required to wait in border cities for their immigration court hearings. (Hackman, 3/23)
Stat: Amid Coronavirus, Thousands Of Foreign Doctors Could Be Blocked From U.S.
The status of more than 4,200 foreign doctors who were chosen to do medical residencies in American teaching hospitals — hospitals that will desperately need their help to cope with Covid-19 — is in doubt because the State Department has temporarily stopped issuing the visas most of them would need to enter the country, according to a group that sponsors international medical graduates. The Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates said Monday that most of the international doctors would be relying on getting a J-1 visa to work in the United States, but processing of those visas has been put on hold by the State Department amid the coronavirus pandemic. (Branswell, 3/23)
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