NYT editorial board warns Trump's policies are 'exporting' coronavirus to other countries

On Thursday, The New York Times editorial board warned that President Donald Trump's policies are not only letting coronavirus spread in America, but "exporting" it abroad.

"The United States, with the largest number of coronavirus cases in the world, is now consciously spreading the pandemic beyond its borders by continuing to deport thousands of immigrants, many infected with the coronavirus, to poor countries ill equipped to cope with the disease," wrote the board.

"President Trump and his senior policy adviser, Stephen Miller, have long shown themselves impervious to criticism of the effectiveness and morality of their hard-line policies," continued the board. "Yet in this pandemic, mass deportations are not only cruel but also dangerous to public health abroad and at home. Dangerous because seeding and fanning the pandemic in any country, let alone those suffering from corruption and poverty, will only prolong the health crisis and worsen the conditions that led to mass migration from El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Honduras, Haiti and Mexico."

The administration has continued to pursue its goal of curbing immigration and deporting migrants with little regard for its impact on public health. In one recent example, immigration courts were ordered to take down bilingual posters instructing people on preventing the spread of disease.

"Guatemala offers an illustration of the problem today," wrote the board. "In late April, its government reported that nearly a fifth of the country’s coronavirus cases were linked to deportees from the United States. On one flight of what is known as ICE Air, the deportation fleet run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 71 of 76 deportees tested positive for the coronavirus. When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention went to Guatemala to check on the claim, 12 deportees selected at random all tested positive."

In response to these alarming numbers, the board wrote, Guatemala briefly suspended deportation flights, and one Guatemalan health official called the United States the "Wuhan of the Americas."

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