WEBVTT

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These four immigrants
have something in common.

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They were recently deported
from the United States,

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and they all had
the coronavirus.

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Even as extreme measures
were taken around the world

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to stop the spread
of Covid-19,

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Immigration and
Customs Enforcement or ICE

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continue to detain
people in the U.S., move

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them from state to state
and then deport them

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to other countries.

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And with them, the virus.

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The New York Times
in collaboration

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with The Marshall Project
has interviewed sick detainees

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in ICE detention centers
over the last four months,

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we’ve tracked hundreds of
domestic and international

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deportation flights.

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We’ve spoken with
airline staff

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who operate those flights.

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And we’ve talked to
Covid-positive deportees

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in Guatemala, El Salvador,
India and Haiti.

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ICE says it has followed
C.D.C. guidelines,

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but our investigation
reveals how

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unsafe conditions and
scattershot testing

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turned ICE into a domestic
and global spreader

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of the coronavirus, and how
pressure from the

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Trump administration
forced countries

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to take in sick deportees
despite the risk.

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To understand how ICE
spread the virus, let’s

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first look at how its
detention system works.

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On any given day,
ICE holds tens

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of thousands of
immigrants in a network

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of private facilities, state
prisons and county jails

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across the U.S.

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Those detained include
everyone from asylum seekers

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and undocumented immigrants
to green card holders

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with deportable convictions.

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They’re held in what’s called
civil detention while they

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wait for hearings to determine
whether they can remain

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in the U.S.

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When detainees
lose their immigration cases

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and are ordered deported,

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ICE will move them
to other detention

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centers in Louisiana,
Texas, Arizona or Florida.

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From there, immigrants
are flown back

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to their home countries.

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“Today, I am
officially declaring

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a national emergency.”

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Although President Trump
declared the coronavirus

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a national emergency
on March 13, ICE

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continued to take immigrants
from the community

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and detain them in
facilities where

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conditions were ripe for
the virus to spread.

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We talked to more
than 30 detainees

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who described centers where
social distancing was

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impossible, and where protective
gear was not provided.

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Yudanys, an
immigrant from Cuba,

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was first detained at the
Catahoula Correctional Center

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in Louisiana
while awaiting a decision

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on his asylum case.

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When Yudanys was at Catahoula,
there was already

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a confirmed case of the
virus — within a month

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60 detainees were positive.

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He tested positive
for Covid-19 in May.

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So far, ICE has
confirmed at least 3,000

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positive detainees, though
testing has been limited.

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Even as detention centers
became hotbeds for the virus,

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ICE regularly moved
detainees around the U.S.

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We tracked over 750
domestic U.S. flights

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that carried thousands
of detainees

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to different centers
since a national emergency

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was declared.

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ICE contracts out these
flights to a company

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called iAero, which operates
Swift Air.

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A Swift flight attendant,

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who asked
to remain anonymous,

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told us that detainees
from different centers

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are collected and
transported together.

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She and
several other airline

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employees we spoke to said
that these flights, which

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were under the
direction of ICE,

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lacked protective
measures for more than a

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month after the national
emergency was declared.

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Swift Air declined

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to comment on this story.

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But ICE confirmed
that the airline

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didn’t have P.P.E. for all of
its staff until mid-April.

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Kanate, a refugee
from Kyrgyzstan,

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is one of those who was
moved from place to place.

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He had been living in the U.S.
for 20 years with his wife

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and two kids when he
was detained in 2019.

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In April, Kanate was moved from
the Pike County facility

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in Pennsylvania to Prairieland,
Texas, even though he

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had been feeling sick.

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Kanate tested positive
for the virus

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two days after
arriving in Texas.

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ICE said, its detention
and transfer protocols

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follow C.D.C. guidelines.

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While ICE was moving
sick detainees

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around the U.S., it was
also deporting them

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to other countries
and exporting

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the virus with them.

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We tracked over 200
deportation flights

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from March 13 through
June, and confirmed

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that hundreds of
detainees with Covid-19

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were returned to
11 countries — all 11 had

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placed restrictions
on their borders.

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But there could be many
more infected deportees.

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ICE told us they’ve deported
almost 40,000 immigrants

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from 138 countries
since March.

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Kanate told us

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that four of his dormmates
either tested positive

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for Covid or had symptoms,
but were deported

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to India anyway.

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One of them talked to us
after he had arrived home.

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He asked to remain anonymous.

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He was one of 22 from his
flight who tested positive

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upon arrival.

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Admild, an immigrant from
Haiti, knew he had the virus

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even before being deported.

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He tested positive
for Covid-19

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while detained in Louisiana.

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He was put in quarantine and
deported two weeks later.

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Admild said he
still had symptoms days

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after landing.

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Of the hundreds of deportation
flights we tracked,

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Central America was the
region most affected.

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Nearly 60 percent of these
flights went to Honduras,

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Guatemala and El Salvador,
all of which had

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closed their borders as they
tried to contain the virus.

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The Guatemalan government
said that 186 deportees had

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tested positive for Covid-19,

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so far.

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We spoke to Lourdes, who
was one of 30 passengers

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on a single flight who tested
positive after arriving.

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Lourdes was hospitalized a
few days after landing.

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El Salvador on the
other hand, has

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said that no deportees
arrived with the virus.

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But we spoke to
Jorge, who said

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he started to feel sick
while at the

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Catahoula Correctional
Center in Louisiana

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before he was deported
to El Salvador.

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He said he was one of
32 from his flight who

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tested positive.

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Hundreds of
deportees are being

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held in quarantine centers
like this one in El Salvador.

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Sources inside told us at
least 10 Covid cases were

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confirmed in the centers.

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The Salvadoran
government didn’t reply

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to a request for comment.

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A key question
in all of this is

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why some countries
have continued

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to take in sick deportees
while others have pushed back?

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The Trump administration
has threatened governments

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with visa sanctions and
cuts in humanitarian aid

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unless they complied
with deportations.

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El Salvador and Honduras
have accepted thousands

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of deportees since March,
despite rising rates

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of Covid there, and
poor infrastructure

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to address the pandemic.

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In April, Trump praised the
presidents of both countries

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for their cooperation, and said
he would send ventilators.

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Guatemala was less
compliant, and its president

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has been blunt.

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Guatemala asked the
U.S. to test migrants,

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and it temporarily
blocked flights.

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But three days after
Trump threatened

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countries refusing to
accept deportees, the flights

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to Guatemala resumed.

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ICE confirmed to us
that they are only

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able to administer
a sampling of tests

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before sending
immigrants home.

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Still, the flights go
on and sick detainees

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continue to be deported.