U.S. immigration court staff were told to remove bilingual CDC-issued coronavirus posters from inside courtrooms, in a directive that apparently stood until the Justice Department, which oversees the immigration court system, reversed course following media reporting and public blowback from a top union representing immigration judges. “The signs should not have been removed,” a Justice Department spokesperson told legal reporter Cristian Farias. “The matter is being rectified.”
The union, the National Association of Immigration Judges, on Monday had recommended that courthouses keep sanitizing items readily available and post “English and Spanish language versions of the CDC's ‘Stop the Spread of Germs’ and ‘Symptoms of Coronavirus Disease 2019’ posters,” the group tweeted, in an effort to protect both court staffers and immigrants—some of whom will likely be children—who appear for their cases.
However, Christopher Santoro, acting chief immigration judge for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, later sent an email directing that the posters come down. “This is just a reminder that immigration judges do not have the authority to post, or ask you to post, signage for their individual courtrooms or the waiting areas," he wrote. "Per our leadership, the CDC flyer is not authorized for posting in the immigration courts. If you see one ... please remove it.”
The responses were understandably outraged. “EOIR has ordered immigration court staff to remove CDC posters designed to slow spread of coronavirus,” the judges’ union tweeted. “No, this is not a parody account.” Legal reporter Mark Joseph Stern tweeted, “This is jaw-dropping. The Trump administration is actively sabotaging efforts to prevent the spread of coronavirus in immigration courts.”
Shortly after the reports of Santoro’s directive, a Justice Department spokesperson announced the reversal, but why this directive would go out in the first place as a potential pandemic looms remains baffling, especially when immigration judges had specifically asked the administration for guidance on helping stop the spread of COVID-19. While CNN reports that Judge Ashley Tabaddor, the union’s president, “explained that generally judges are not supposed to post any personal items in the courtroom without approval,” the posters weren’t personal items—they were issued by a federal agency.
The government’s overall response to the COVID-19 crisis has been a mess of negligence and lies, and a potential outbreak in Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection facilities doesn’t seem to concern officials at all. While border officials claimed they’re implementing "existing procedures" to protect detainees, The American Independent reported, “The spokesperson did not share any additional measures had been put in place at detention centers regarding the COVID-19 outbreak. CBP did not respond to questions about whether any detainees or Border Patrol staff at its various detention centers had been tested for COVID-19, or if any had tested positive.”