AG Sues Biden Administration After Chinese Migrant With ‘Rare, Aggressive and Drug-Resistant’ Tuberculosis Entered US

Republican Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill filed an “emergency lawsuit” against several Harris-Biden administration officials last week after a Chinese migrant with a rare form of tuberculosis illegally entered the US.

The lawsuit seeks to prevent federal immigration officials from releasing “potentially infected detainees” that came in contact with the Chinese national – who has a “rare, aggressive, and drug-resistant form of tuberculosis which carries high mortality rates” – while she was in the custody of immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“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 states.

“By ICE’s telling, its hands are tied once its immigration-based detention authority runs out,” the lawsuit continues, warning that migrants who may have contracted the disease will be released “onto Louisiana streets, its bus stations, and its airports.”

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Murrill estimates that over 200 detainees and “untold numbers of non-detainees” may have been exposed to the disease as the TB-infected migrant was flown by ICE from California to Louisiana and then shuttled between a detention center and processing facility.

The Chinese migrant – a woman whose name is redacted in the lawsuit – illegally crossed the US-Mexico border in April and was apprehended by federal authorities in California in July, according to the complaint.

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The woman was given a TB skin test upon her arrival at Richwood which tested “highly positive” on July 23.

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Despite apparently having the contagious disease, “three days later …”ICE moved [her] to the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center (‘the Basile facility’) in Basile, Louisiana,” where she was placed in “general population” – potentially exposing even more people to the pathogen.

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Louisiana did not learn of the “imminent threat to public health” until Oct. 9.

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