Incredibly significant: Video appearing to show Guatemala health official saying deportation flight from US had between 50-75% of people test COVID-19+ -given @ICEgov packs flights, 100+ people *one flight* would be nearly as many cases as ICE has confirmed in custody *right now*
@ICEgov Just days ago WH issued threats of visa sanctions against countries that don't take back their citizens deported from the US amid coronavirus - widely seen as aimed at Northern Triangle, and in particular Guatemala, which was first to stop them March 17: lat.ms/2yU0bIe
Guatemala has since stopped & started accepting US deportation flights several times after handful of minors deported from the US with fevers, and several adults tested COVID-19 positive, despite US claiming proper protocols to prevent this very thing: lat.ms/2V9Ik8Y
Trump WH also leaning heavily on Guatemala to take back unaccompanied minors & others under controversial 'expulsions'-11k since March 20, per @CBPMarkMorgan -citing CDC, bypassing US laws. In 1st wk April, Guatemala received 100 lone kids deported from US lat.ms/3bamkAr
As of now @ICEgov only confirmed 77 detainees have tested COVID-19+ bit.ly/2RzEJig - though numbers deceptive, because ~700 have been released from custody amid coronavirus, per @Haleaziz , at least a handful from the COVID-19+ count, per @mattkatz00
Based Guatemalan health official's statement that 75% on one flight tested COVID-19+ & believes 50-75% on most flights, let's take for ex, 2 deportation flights to Guatemala yesterday from US, which had 76 and 106, incl 16 minors. Even conservatively, that'd be 90+.
In other words, this Guatemalan health official seems to be confirming what we've all been reporting on and long suspecting: The Trump admin is potentially massively-and perhaps intentionally-undercounting the # of DHS employees, contractors & migrants in its custody w/ COVID-19.
