Christian Baldwin He previously worked with the Media Research Center. Student of history and philosophy. Dedicated to the Pursuit of Truth. “In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” – George Orwell Can send story tips on X to @MonteCristo1837
Louisiana Attorney General Elizabeth Murrill filed a lawsuit Wednesday against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), alleging that a Chinese national infected with a “rare, aggressive and drug-resistant” form of tuberculosis illegally entered the country.
Murrill claimed that immigration officials exposed Americans and other detainees to the disease after they transported the Chinese “Patient Zero” to various ICE facilities around the state, according to a statement released by Louisiana’s Department of Justice. The attorney general also claimed that the illegal migrant suffers from an antibiotic-resistant form of tuberculosis with a high mortality rate.
🚨BREAKING: I am suing @AliMayorkas & @DHSgov after a Chinese national who illegally entered the United States was found in Louisiana with a rare, aggressive, & drug-resistant form of Tuberculosis, threatening the health & safety of the people of Louisiana & America.… pic.twitter.com/isxk9fYRub
— Attorney General Liz Murrill (@AGLizMurrill) October 23, 2024
Murrill blamed the alleged exposure on the Biden administration’s border policy, calling the alleged misstep a “dereliction of duty” in the statement. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has recorded roughly 8.5 million encounters with illegal migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border since 2021, according to data released Tuesday.
“Millions of undocumented illegal aliens continue to pour across the southern border – unidentified, untracked, and untested for diseases that can threaten the lives of American citizens,” Murrill said in the statement. “The federal government has put the health and safety of Louisiana and American people at risk. Despite this dereliction of duty by President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Secretary Mayorkas, Louisiana officials acted immediately to protect our people.” (RELATED: ‘I Love Kamala’: Migrants Fear Trump Victory As Caravan Heads To US)
Murrill also alleged in an interview with the Caller that the Biden administration does not require migrants to undergo any form of health screening after crossing the border.
“They’re not checking them,” Murrill told the Caller. “If you know anything about the asylum rule, it is a fast track to get people across the border. And so they’re not checking them.”
The attorney general claims that “Patient Zero” underwent no health screenings after she arrived by plane to the ICE facility in Monroe, Louisiana, from San Diego, endangering other airline passengers who were traveling across the entire country.
“So they flew this person into Alexandria, put her on a bus with 39 other people, took her to Richwood in Monroe and that point, all people coming into that facility, which is an ICE processing facility, were tested … but they don’t test them when they cross the border, so this lady flew with 140 people from San Diego, and the rest of that airplane went on to Houston.”
The state of Louisiana first learned that the Chinese migrant had tested positive for “pre-extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB)” on Oct. 9, according to the suit. The tuberculosis strain in question is deadlier than others, with a mortality rate of 34-39%, the suit said.
Treatments for this type of TB are rare and expensive.
“I’m told by the medical experts that the treatment alone costs $22,000 per treatment,” Murrill told the Caller.
The cost may be much higher, exceeding $500,000 for a direct treatment of the XDR-TB strain, according to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
This picture taken on April 2, 2024 shows Vietnamese doctor Truong Duc Thai and his colleague checking X-ray film of a drug-resistant tuberculosis patient at National Lung Hospital in Hanoi. (Photo by NHAC NGUYEN/AFP via Getty Images)
Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph Abraham ordered a hospital to hold the Chinese national in isolation Oct 11, according to the filings. He issued a second order demanding ICE to quarantine its Basile facility, where the patient was allegedly being held, and that the facility should isolate and retain high-risk contact until they are cleared by the Louisiana Department of Health. The same order was issued to ICE’s Richwood facility Oct. 14, where the patient had also allegedly been held.
ICE officials said they would release any detainees held in their facilities if the White House ordered them to do so, Murrill said of an Oct. 15 phone call with state and federal officials.
The attorney general complained that federal officials were creating problems and leaving the states to deal with the mess.
“Once they release them, by the way, they become the state’s problem,” Murrill told the Caller. “So we had that conversation with ICE. So if you’re gonna release somebody even though we haven’t medically cleared them, but you think you’ve got to let them go, then what? And they’re like, ‘Basically, it’s your problem.’ So the state of Louisiana would have had to assume the cost and the responsibility for quarantining that person in a hotel and providing security to make sure that they didn’t leave, bringing them meals, and, you know, addressing their basic needs to make sure they stayed quarantined for the time that we needed them to stay quarantined because ICE refused to do it.”
“I can confirm that both Richwood and Basile are currently not intaking any new detainees,” an ICE employee wrote in a follow-up email to state officials, according to the lawsuit. “If we encounter a situation involving a detainee that we are legally required to release, we will contact LDH and provide time to take appropriate action and coordinate any transfer of custody to LDH [Louisiana Department of Health] as needed.”
The attorney general’s filing argues that ICE’s alleged actions violate Louisiana’s constitutionally delegated powers under the Tenth Amendment.
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people.”
Murrill originally filed the suit Oct. 16 before it was publicized Wednesday. The U.S. District Court of the Western District of Louisiana granted the state a temporary restraining order Oct. 17 against ICE.
“On October 17, we got on the phone with the court, and on the same day, the court entered a temporary restraining order against ICE basically barring ICE from releasing potentially infected detainees without court approval,” a spokesperson for the attorney general said in a press conference.
Governor Jeff Landry to Hold GOHSEP Press Conference https://t.co/WCU70pF39Z
— Governor Jeff Landry (@LAGovJeffLandry) October 23, 2024
A preliminary injunction hearing for the suit is scheduled for Oct. 31.
The Caller reached out to ICE for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.