REPORT: Immigration advocates call on Barr to halt migrant prosecutions amid coronavirus outbreak

As the most reliable and balanced news aggregation service on the internet, DML News App offers the following information published by TheHill.com:

Immigration advocates are calling on Attorney General William Barr to halt immigration prosecutions and stop bringing charges of entry against immigrants at the border. The push is in an effort to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, advocacy groups led by Mijente wrote in a letter to Barr Tuesday.

“An outbreak of the coronavirus in these courts and custodial facilities would not only move fast, it would be catastrophic,” the groups wrote, adding that vulnerable groups such as the elderly and people with medical conditions are “well represented” among incarcerated people.

The article goes on to state the following:

Failing to make changes places the surrounding communities at risk, the advocates wrote. People who cycle in and out of the detention facilities, including staff and people who are arrested and released within a short time, are at risk of spreading the virus beyond the facilities if there is an outbreak.

The advocates are asking the Department of Justice (DOJ) to end arrests and criminal referrals for unauthorized entry and reentry, drop all unauthorized entry and reentry charges and decline all new criminal prosecution for such charges. The groups also ask the DOJ to agree to re-sentence people held in prisons.

***LATEST UPDATE:

*Coronavirus cases worldwide: 396,211

*Total confirmed deaths: 17,250

*Recovered patients: 103,748

To get more information about this article, please visit TheHill.com. To weigh in, leave a comment below.