Sec. 2. Sense of Congress
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It is the sense of Congress that— during the COVID–19 pandemic, many immigration enforcement activities have needlessly endangered public health, including the health of enforcement officers and members of the community; continued arrests and apprehensions— prevent immigrant communities from accessing necessary services for their health and well being; and risk increasing the immigration detention population at a time when the number of people in immigration detention must urgently be reduced;
Department of Homeland Security medical experts estimate that between 75 and 100 percent of the people detained in many immigration detention centers across the country may contract COVID–19 unless such centers are drastically depopulated; other in-person activities, including check-ins and removal hearings, create significant public health risks; the National Association of Immigration Judges, a union of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement trial attorneys, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association have all urged the Department of Justice to cease all in-person removal proceedings, citing expert guidance that continuing in-person removal proceedings during the pandemic is irresponsible ; deportations risk spreading COVID–19 to neighboring countries, where the virus will devastate already limited health systems and create untold harm; the United States has already sent individuals who tested positive for COVID–19 to at least 8 countries; a consortium of United Nations migration and human rights organizations has called on all countries in the global community to halt all forced removals during the pandemic, noting that [f]orced returns can intensify serious public health risks for everyone—migrants, public health officials, health workers, social workers, and both host and origin communities ; expulsions at the border— violate longstanding, congressionally mandated protections for asylum seekers; and fail to protect public health; the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has declared that— countries cannot enact blanket measure[s] to preclude the admission of refugees or asylum-seekers ; and any such measures must be non-discriminatory as well as necessary, proportionate and reasonable to the aim of protecting public health ; leading public health experts have urged United States officials to withdraw the order enabling mass expulsion of asylum seekers, noting border expulsions fail to further public health and implicate serious human rights concerns; border crossing prosecutions have been suspended in several border districts because they are incompatible with public health; the Department of Homeland Security continues to refer people for prosecutions in some districts for violations of section 276 of the Immigration and Nationality Act ( 8 U.S.C. 1326 ); and people continue to be unnecessarily held in pre-trial detention facilities where COVID–19 has spread.
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