BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill announced on Wednesday that a lawsuit has been filed against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its contractors regarding a detainee diagnosed with tuberculosis.
According to the AG's office, the suit stems from the illegal entry into the U.S. by an illegal Chinese national, who has a "rare, aggressive, and drug-resistant form of tuberculosis, which carries high mortality rates" and came into contact with hundreds of detainees and numerous non-detainees.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, along with officials from the AG's office and the Louisiana Department of Health and the Office of the Attorney General addressed the issue during a press conference in Baton Rouge.
Watch: Governor Jeff Landry holds GOHSEP press conference
Attorney General Liz Murrill and the State of Louisiana provided list of actions:
- On October 9, the State learned that Patient 0 tested positive for a drug-resistant form of tuberculosis.
- Over the next five days, Attorney General Liz Murrill intimately worked with the Government, the Surgeon General, and other Department of Health officials to create an action plan for stopping the spread of the disease.
- On October 15, the Attorney General and the AG’s Solicitor General hosted a call with ICE officials and demanded that ICE commit to not releasing any potentially infected detainees without medical clearance by the Department of Health. ICE refused.
- As a result, the same day, Governor Landry and the Attorney General directed the Solicitor General to prepare an emergency lawsuit against ICE.
- On October 16, the Solicitor General’s office drafted and filed an emergency complaint and request for a temporary restraining order under seal in Lafayette in the Western District of Louisiana. The filings were under seal because they involved the sensitive health information of Patient 0.
- On October 17, the district court entered the temporary restraining order requested by the State stopping ICE from releasing potentially infected detainees without medical clearance by the Department of Health.
- The district court originally scheduled a preliminary-injunction hearing for tomorrow, October 24, but then delayed that hearing until Thursday, October 31 so that the parties can provide fuller briefing on the issues.
- Yesterday evening (October 22), at AG Murrill’s request, the district court unsealed the docket in this case, while redacting the health information of Patient 0.
Statement by Attorney General Liz Murrill reads:
“The protection of our southern border is paramount to the security of the United States. It is neither political nor unreasonable that Louisiana has time and time again demanded that the Biden-Harris administration defend this nation. Those not legally present should not be in the country – period. Millions of undocumented illegal aliens continue to pour across the southern border – unidentified, untracked, and untested for diseases that can threaten the lives of American citizens. The federal government has put the health and safety of Louisiana and American people at risk. Despite this dereliction of duty by President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Secretary Mayorkas, Louisiana officials acted immediately to protect our people.” - Attorney General Liz Murrill
Read the lawsuit here.
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