Trump administration pressures CDC to back detention of migrant children in border hotels amid coron
Source: Washington Post
Trump administration pressures CDC to back detention of migrant children in border hotels amid coronavirus
CDC career officials have pushed back on what they see as an effort to use government scientists to advance the president’s political agenda
By Lena H. Sun and Nick Miroff
10/23/2020, 12:10:57 p.m.
The Trump administration has been pressuring health experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to endorse the use of border hotels to hold migrant children before deporting them, a practice the government halted last month under court order, according to federal health officials.
Career CDC officials have declined to sign off on a declaration requested by the Department of Health and Human Services affirming that the use of hotels to detain migrant children is the best way to protect them from the spread of the novel coronavirus, according to one HHS official who has seen the declaration.
HHS has the responsibility for overseeing a network of shelters that care for underage migrants who arrive to the United States without an adult. The minors typically remain in the shelters until they are deported, or the government releases them into the custody of a sponsor, who is often a relative.
“CDC career scientists should not be pressured to sign a legal declaration justifying the administration’s treatment of unaccompanied minors,” said the HHS official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. “Our federal scientists are understandably refusing to sign a document lending support to the administration’s immigration policies and practices.”
The request from HHS is the latest example of the administration’s efforts to use government scientists and physicians to advance the president’s political agenda. ...
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/10/23/immigrant-minors-hotels-trump/
