Louisiana is suing Secretary of Homeland Security after an illegal immigrant arrived in the state with a rare, drug-resistant form of tuberculosis.
Governor Jeff Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill said Wednesday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials moved the Chinese national around in detention, putting them in contact with at least 200 other detainees and staff.
The officials said they had worked to isolate the case, but that ICE had ignored their calls for other detainees to be held until cleared by the Louisiana Department of Health, potentially leading to the spread of the disease.
“We have dodged a bullet this time, we have utilized the justice system to ensure that we can continue to protect the public,” Governor Landry, a Republican, told reporters Wednesday, adding that there was no indication the public was in any danger.
Left: Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry speaks Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024, in Baton Rouge, La. Right: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, seen in Washington, DC, on October 1, 2024, is being sued by Louisiana over a Chinese illegal immigrant who arrived with a rare form of tuberculosis.
AP Photo/Getty Images
According to the lawsuit filed against Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas, the Chinese national crossed illegally into the U.S. in California, via the southwest border, in July. They were later flown with around 100 other detainees to an ICE facility in Louisiana that same month.
The patient was tested for TB after showing some signs of the condition and transferred to two other facilities before returning to the detention center at Richwood.
Three days later, despite growing symptoms of TB, she was taken to the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile and she was released into the general population there. It wasn’t until Oct. 9 that Louisiana Department of Health officials received positive results on her condition.
Shortly after that, officials issued an order requiring ICE to hold detainees in facilities until they could be cleared for release by the Dept. of Health, but the agency refused, the lawsuit alleges.
“This particular patient has a very resistant strain of tuberculosis,” Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph Abraham told reporters. “It is the only case in Louisiana, and we normally do not see a case such as this except from a foreign country.”
Abraham said the strain could be contained and the patient was receiving the proper medications.
For the governor and attorney general, the federal government still has questions to answer, as ICE had decided to “ignore” Louisiana officials and still release those who may have been exposed to the infected migrant.
“[We have] an open porous border, an unchecked border. We’re allowing people to come into this country with diseases that this country’s healthcare system has consistently worked to eradicate,” the governor said.
The lawsuit calls for a temporary and then permanent injunction, preventing ICE from releasing detainees until they are medically cleared.
It also asks for the CDC to intervene if necessary, using Title 42, the rule applied during the COVID-19 pandemic, which would require isolation and/or quarantine of those in the Richwood and Basile facilities.
Newsweek reached out to DHS and ICE for comment on the case Wednesday afternoon via email.
