The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, are facing a lawsuit after an illegal alien exposed hundreds of people in Louisiana to a rare, drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis, according to the suit filed by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill (R).
🚨BREAKING: I am suing @AliMayorkas & @DHSgov after a Chinese national who illegally entered the United States was found in Louisiana with a rare, aggressive, & drug-resistant form of Tuberculosis, threatening the health & safety of the people of Louisiana & America.… pic.twitter.com/isxk9fYRub
— Attorney General Liz Murrill (@AGLizMurrill) October 23, 2024
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) announced the lawsuit alongside Murrill on Wednesday, accusing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials of shuffling the infected Chinese illegal alien around in detention in Louisiana, ultimately exposing at least 200 other detainees and staff to the rare TB strain.
Mayorkas is specifically named in the lawsuit because, “through his official capacity” as Homeland Security Secretary, he allowed the infected individual to be transferred through ICE facilities.
The goal of the lawsuit is to block federal immigration officials from being able to release “potentially infected detainees” who came into contact with the infected illegal alien while she was in ICE custody. The strain of the disease was explained to be a “rare, aggressive, and drug-resistant form of tuberculosis which carries high mortality rates.”
“ICE has announced its intent to release potentially infected detainees from its two contract facilities [in Louisiana] — without being medically cleared by the Louisiana Department of Health — if an order requires release,” the complaint stated.
“By ICE’s telling, its hands are tied once its immigration-based detention authority runs out,” the lawsuit continued, warning that illegal aliens who may have contracted the disease could be released “onto Louisiana streets, its bus stations, and its airports.”
“This is utterly wrong,” Murrill argued, according to the New York Post. “The Surgeon General’s standing orders require detainees at the two facilities in question to be held unless and until they are medically cleared by the Louisiana Department of Health.”
“That is a quintessential exercise of the State’s sovereign prerogatives, the exercise of its police powers, and its obligation to protect the public health within its borders,” she added, pointing out that the infected illegal alien was housed in two facilities that weren’t even owned by ICE.
Louisiana took immediate action to ensure the safety and security of Louisiana residents, & to stop the spread of the drug-resistant form of tuberculosis by an illegal Chinese national. @LAGovJeffLandry @LADeptHealth @la_surgeon https://t.co/DCNSi2KCwf pic.twitter.com/fRg2hSJYl1
— Attorney General Liz Murrill (@AGLizMurrill) October 23, 2024
This Chinese illegal alien reportedly entered the U.S. illegally via California in July, but was then flown alongside 100 other illegals to Alexandria, Louisiana, and was ultimately bussed to a second facility that housed more illegals.
According to Murrill, more than 200 detainees and “untold numbers of non-detainees” were likely exposed to the dangerous illness.
