The Week, on Wednesday April 15th, reported, “Guatamala’s Health Minister Says At Least Half Of All Deportess From U.S. Have COVID-19.”
Guatamala Health Minister Hugo Monroy on Tuesday said more than 50 percent of all depotees flown to his country from the United States have tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus.
Monroy did not share any specific numbers on how many deportees are sick or when they returned to Guatamala, the Los Angeles Times reports, but he did say that deportees are stepping off airplanes with fevers and coughs and are receiving immidiate COVID-19 testing. Guatamala has 150 active COVID-19 cases in the country, and at least five Guatamalans have died from the virus. A spokesman for the Guatamalan foreign ministry told The Times the “official” number of deportees diagnosed with COVID-19 is four, with one arriving Monday.
National Director of the Knights Party based in Harrison Arkansas, Thomas Robb said, “Anything that happens to these Illegal immigrants, whether it’s a rape or some other abuse that happens in Mexico, a serious medical emergency, and now COVID-19, it’s always insinuated that it’s somehow America’s fault. Nobody told these people to migrate to America for free handouts. They came here at their own risk, and with anything, there is a risk.”
Robb added, “I also find it odd that the Guatamalan Health Minister said that these deportees were being tested for COVID-19 immediately, yet the United States is still working to perfect that capability. The way they complain about their treatment here, it seems to me that they would be better off remaining in Guatamala.”