Massachusetts Senators ask Justice Department about confusion at immigration courts over CDC coronavirus fliers

CNN reports that, earlier this week, Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey sent a letter to the Trump administration requesting information about confusion that played out this week in the nation’s immigration courts over whether judges could hang up Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fliers about coronavirus after the Justice Department asked them to be taken down.  The letter begins:

“We write to express our concern and seek answers regarding the Executive Office for Immigration Review’s (EOIR) reported order to immigration court judges and staff to remove from EOIR facilities all posters with public health information about coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Yesterday morning, members of our staff visited the Boston Immigration Court and confirmed there were no COVID-19 posters displayed in the waiting areas. We are pleased that EOIR seems to have quickly reversed this decision in response to a news report-and that the posters were hanging in the Boston Immigration Court later in the day yesterday-but we remain concerned that COVID-19-related policy decisions appear to be driven primarily by publicity-related-rather than public health–considerations, and that this episode reflects a lack of coordination in the federal government’s response to the virus. Moreover, we urge EOIR to mandate the posting of COVID-19 information and prevention signage in all courtrooms and waiting areas. 

Earlier this week, the union representing immigration judges requested that the Executive Office for Immigration Review provide guidance on coronavirus. In the interim, the union sent recommendations to staff, including CDC fliers on the disease and how to prevent its spread to hang up in courtrooms.

Shortly after the judges’ union sent that email Monday, Christopher A. Santoro, acting chief immigration judge, sent a note to court administrators telling them the CDC flier “is not authorized for posting in the immigration courts.”

The Justice Department has since backtracked, telling court administrators and assistant chief immigration judges to post CDC fliers about disease prevention “on each courtroom door and at the courtroom window.”

KJ