There is a new level of concern for migrants risking their lives for asylum in the United States due to rising infections levels of the global coronavirus outbreaks.
Immigrant detention centers around the country, according to government data, have left more than 8,000 asylum-seekers with COVID-19, The Washington Post reported.
Deportation back to their home country has even become a better option than detention, as 2,500 have withdrawn their cases since March, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, per the report.
The Post detailed the heart-breaking story of one migrant who came over the border as a teen, only to serve three years in detention after migrating away from gang violence in Honduras. He returned to the dangers of his home country and ultimately was found dead after a reported robbery.
"Whatever you can do to get me out of here, please make it happen," Kevin Euceda, then 20, told his lawyers this summer, per the Post. "I've never been this scared."
Students at Washington and Lee University's law school have earned college credit aiding asylum cases, including Euceda's, per the report.
"What if this coronavirus thing lasts for a long time?" Kevin wrote then to the students. "Imagine if the virus got in here. I think we'd all die."
For many, going back to their home country, no matter the violence or living conditions, seemed like a better option now – fatefully for Euceda, too.
The Farmville, Immigration Centers of America — the site in rural Virginia where Kevin stayed — had 267 COVID-19 positive cases among the 286 detainees by July 19, scary figures, save for the fact it could not get worse.
"Dr. [Teresa] Moore said good news is that's almost the whole facility, so can't go over that much," Farmville's nursing director wrote to the health department in an email, per the Post.
After the virus washed over places like Farmville, the number of migrants seeking deportation over asylum has subsided along with the cases, per the Post, but the potential dangers remain in their temporary homes and their home countries.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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