The Trump Administration Is Now Deporting Unaccompanied Immigrant Kids Due To The Coronavirus

A refugee advocate said the administration was “using” a public health crisis “to advance their long-standing goal of overturning US laws protecting vulnerable children."

Hamed Aleaziz BuzzFeed News Reporter March 30, 2020

John Moore / Getty Images
Unaccompanied immigrant minors wait to be transported to a US processing center July 2, 2019, in Los Ebanos, Texas.

In a major departure from previous practice mandated by federal law, the Trump administration has begun quickly deporting immigrant children apprehended alone at the southern border.

Administration officials say they are following public health orders designed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the US, but opponents say they are using the health orders to skirt federal laws that govern the processing of unaccompanied minors.

The New York Times first reported that the Trump administration would apply to unaccompanied children from Central America a March 20 order issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that bars the entry of those who cross into the country without authorization.

Previously, unaccompanied children from Central America picked up by Border Patrol agents would be sent to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), where they would be housed in shelters across the country as they began officially applying for asylum and waited to be reunited with family members in the US.

On Monday, a US Customs and Border Protection official confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the agency was now applying the CDC order to children.

“All aliens CBP encounters may be subject to the CDC’s Order Suspending Introduction Of Persons From A Country Where A Communicable Disease Exists (March 20, 2020), including minors,” read a statement from CBP. “When minors are encountered without adult family members, CBP works closely with their home countries to transfer them to the custody of government officials and reunite them with their families quickly and safely, if possible.”

The statement noted that there is discretion for the agency to exclude certain unaccompanied children from the order if, for example, they show signs of illness.


Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Minors are seen as they exercise in a common area at the Homestead shelter for unaccompanied immigrant children April 8, 2019, in Homestead, Florida.

Immigrant advocatEs told BuzzFeed News they were alarmed at the policy shift.

“Children arriving at the border, many of whom have endured unimaginable harm at home and on their journey, are the most vulnerable group encountered by border officials. Unaccompanied children are particularly vulnerable to trafficking,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a policy analyst at the American Immigration Council. “The answer to coronavirus cannot be to put children in harm’s way."

Eleanor Acer, the refugee protection director at Human Rights First, said the move was proof that the Trump administration was “using” a public health crisis “to advance their long-standing goal of overturning US laws protecting vulnerable children and people seeking asylum.”
If you're someone who is seeing the impact of the coronavirus firsthand, we’d like to hear from you. Reach out to us via one of our tip line channels.

Government data obtained by BuzzFeed News indicates that current referrals of unaccompanied children from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to the US refugee agency are especially low. On Sunday, just four unaccompanied minors were referred to ORR shelters. DHS averaged 14 referrals a day over the past week, a drop of 78% from the previous month.

“This is a drastic drop in referrals, especially compared to 2019, when well over a hundred unaccompanied children were referred to ORR each day,” said Sarah Pierce, an analyst with the Migration Policy Institute. “While it likely reflects decreased arrivals at the southern border, it also suggests that many are being refused entry, in direct contravention of federal law.”

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The ORR referral process was created by the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, which was signed by then-president George W. Bush in 2008. Under the law, CBP officials are generally required to refer the children within 72 hours to the US refugee agency.

On Monday, several leading Democrats called on the Trump administration to clarify the new process.

“Reports that DHS is not following the TVPRA are deeply troubling,” wrote Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Dick Durbin, along with Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Zoe Lofgren, in a letter sent to acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf on Monday. “We have an obligation to ensure the health and safety of these children. Children do not have to be put in harm’s way to protect us from the coronavirus pandemic. DHS has the ability and capacity to protect both these children and the public. We request that DHS stop this practice immediately.”

There are more than 3,500 unaccompanied immigrant children currently in the custody of ORR.

On Wednesday, attorneys filed a legal request in court to force the ORR to release unaccompanied children in government custody due to risks associated with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

On Saturday, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to make every effort to “promptly and safely” release the children to their family members and sponsors.

Silvia Verónica Raquec Cum, migration coordinator for with Asociación Pop No'j, a non-profit that works with deported immigrants in Guatemala and indigenous communities, said the practice of immediately sending unaccompanied minors back to their countries is not only preventing them from accessing the US asylum system, but also endangering their communities.

Recently returned unaccompanied minors who weren't showing symptoms of the virus were monitored for three days at a shelter for children before being released to their family, Raquec said, but people with COVID-19 may not start to show symptoms until much later when they're back in their communities.

"It's especially worrying for those from rural and indigenous communities, which is where most people are migrating from, because there's a lack of access to clean water and food," Raquec told BuzzFeed News. "It's harder for people in poor rural communities to stay home because they have to go out to work to feed their families."

Adolfo Flores contributed reporting.

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After Trump's Tweet, The Government Is Funding A Coronavirus Study Of Hydroxychloroquine

A North Carolina company won a $750,000 deal days after the president’s controversial statements about the antimalarial drugs.
March 28, 2020

The US government awarded a North Carolina pharmaceutical company $750,000 to do research on antimalarial drugs days after President Donald Trump praised the medicines as a possible treatment for COVID-19.

Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD) is supposed to conduct a one-month study on the use of "hydrochloroquine and chloroquine in patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19), positive for SARS-COV-2 virus exposure, or pre-exposure and post-exposure prophylaxis,” according to federal contracting records.

Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine attracted attention earlier this month after a French study involving 42 COVID-19 patients indicated that a small number treated with the drugs — which were developed for use against malaria, but also taken by patients with lupus or rheumatoid arthritis — showed positive results.

At a White House press conference three days after the French study appeared, Trump said “we’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately.” Two days later, the president tweeted that a combination of chloroquine and another drug “have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changes in the history of medicine.”



Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump
HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE & AZITHROMYCIN, taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine. The FDA has moved mountains - Thank You! Hopefully they will BOTH (H works better with A, International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents).....02:13 PM - 21 Mar 2020

The Food and Drug Administration urged caution, however, and said officials are still trying “to determine whether it can be used to treat patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 to potentially reduce the duration of symptoms, as well as viral shedding, which can help prevent the spread of disease.” The World Health Organization agreed that further tests should be conducted, but many scientists criticized Trump’s comments as being overzealous and said the French study was flawed.

Nevertheless, demand for the drugs skyrocketed, leading to a shortage for patients who were taking it for other conditions. The drugs drew widespread exposure from Fox News and Elon Musk.

Do you have questions you want answered? You can always get in touch. And if you're someone who is seeing the impact of this firsthand, we’d also love to hear from you. Reach out to us via one of our tip line channels at tips.buzzfeed.com

The chloroquine study is one of many emergency contracts related to the coronavirus outbreak struck by the US government, which has marshaled some of its enormous purchasing power to enter into similar agreements for hospital beds, protective equipment, and other supplies. Federal contracting data show that 16 agencies have spent more than $250 million on COVID-19 measures since January.

PPD has until April 21 to finish its work, according to the terms of the purchase order. Information about the agreement was posted on a website that lists government contracts. BuzzFeed News has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain a copy of it. The deal was first reported by the Daily Beast.

Within the Department of Health and Human Services, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response has awarded 25 contracts worth more than $210 million since January.

The largest of those went to 3M to produce N95 masks. That $173 million contract runs until October 2021. Rapid Deployment Inc., an Alabama emergency response company, received $28 million for “support services.”

Founded in 1985, PPD is now a global giant with 23,000 employees and offices in 46 countries. The company did not respond to detailed messages seeking comment about its coronavirus research, nor did officials from HHS.

According to the company’s website, it is currently working on about 80 active projects for the Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), and other federal agencies. Under its contract with BARDA, PPD “supports the design and conduct of clinical studies to develop medical countermeasures to protect against bioterrorism, pandemic influenza and other public health emergencies.”

Since 2000, PPD has been awarded more than $700 million in government contracts. The company has also performed work for the Department of Homeland Security, NASA, and the Agency for International Development.

On Jan. 27, PPD announced it was going public. In its first earnings call with investors on March 5, three weeks before its arrangement with HHS, the chair and chief executive, David Simmons, discussed how the pandemic had affected business in China and what PPD was doing to contain the spread of the virus. The outbreak had impacted “the ability of our employees to visit hospitals and other clinical trial sites to conduct monitoring visits,” its earnings report said.


REPORTERS


Jason Leopold is a senior investigative reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Los Angeles. He is a 2018 Pulitzer finalist for international reporting, recipient of the IRE 2016 FOI award and a 2016 Newseum Institute National Freedom of Information Hall of Fame inductee.

Anthony Cormier is an investigative reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York. While working for the Tampa Bay Times, Cormier won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting.

John Templon is a data reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York.

Coronavirus Cases Have Surged, But The US Is Refusing To Take The World’s Most Available Masks

The KN95 mask is a Chinese alternative to the scarce N95 mask, but the FDA refuses to allow it into the country.

Ken BensingerBuzzFeed News Reporter  March 29, 2020

Samuel Corum / Getty Images

As hospitals around the country desperately seek N95 respirator masks to protect health care workers treating COVID-19 patients, the federal government has blocked imports of what might be the world’s most abundant alternative.

That mask is designed to filter out at least 95% of particles that are 0.3 microns or larger in size — the same measure used for the scarce N95 mask. Like the N95, it fits closely around the nose and mouth, creating a seal that decreases the risk of infection. And the Centers for Disease Control has said it’s as effective as N95, which is certified under US testing standards. But this second type of mask, called the KN95, complies with slightly different norms and is made in factories that have not been certified by the US government.

By law, masks, along with most medical devices, can’t be imported or sold in the United States without the Food and Drug Administration’s say-so. Last week, to ease the national shortfall of protective gear, the FDA issued an emergency authorization for non-N95 respirators that had been certified by five foreign countries as well as the European Union. It conspicuously left the KN95 masks out of the emergency authorization.

The omission was all the more startling because in late February the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that KN95 masks were one of numerous “suitable alternatives” to N95 masks “when supplies are short.”

The FDA did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

A significant majority of all respirator masks, including both the N95 and KN95, are manufactured in China. During the height of that country’s outbreak, China restricted exports of virtually all respirator masks, keeping them for domestic use. As that country’s infection numbers have slowed it has eased those restrictions, but now the US must compete with dozens of other countries desperate to acquire masks.

Allowing the importation and use of KN95 could help to greatly alleviate the scarcity.

“The KN95 masks are far more readily available,” said Bob Tilton, who owns a New Jersey–based cosmetics packaging importer and earlier this month decided to use his familiarity with Chinese supply chains to bring in masks and other personal protective equipment to sell to hospitals. “The N95s are much harder to grab.”

Yet without the FDA’s seal of approval, importers are hesitant to order KN95 masks because they worry they’ll get held up at customs. Many hospitals are refusing to accept them, even as free donations, because they fear legal liability should a health care worker get ill while using a nonpermitted device.

Under ordinary circumstances, N95 masks — which are certified by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health — are abundant, available at hardware stores and pharmacies for around $1 apiece and for as little as 35 cents apiece wholesale. But in just two months, the coronavirus pandemic has depleted the world’s supply, creating a gray market that has driven prices for a single mask as high as $12 or more. That, in turn, has opened the door to unscrupulous actors running internet scams that take payment for N95 masks they never deliver, and to others selling counterfeit or mislabeled N95 masks, which could put health care workers at serious risk of infection.

Meanwhile, masks made under the newly permitted US standards — Australia, Brazil, Japan, Korea, Mexico, and the EU — are not made in as great quantities as the N95 or KN95, according to industry experts.

According to 3M, the world’s largest mask manufacturer, the KN95 is “equivalent” and “can be expected to function very similar” to the N95 mask. That opinion was echoed on Feb. 29 by the CDC, which said the KN95 is one of seven foreign-certified respirators “expected to provide protection to workers.”



hakima@hakima70477643
kn95 masks1.05$ available WeChat：15807086825 WhatsApp：+00861841337093207:45 AM - 24 Mar 2020

Tilton is one of a growing number of entrepreneurs and do-gooders who have rushed to find ways to bring respirators into the country to meet the urgent national need. The federal government recently estimated that the US would require 3.5 billion masks over the next year to address COVID-19.

Earlier this month Tilton applied for and received a medical device importer’s license from the FDA and soon thereafter inked a deal to sell 111,000 masks to a large hospital group in New Jersey. Because of the scarcity and high cost of the N95 masks, he split the order between those and KN95 masks and worries that some may get held up.

“You don’t want to risk $500,000 or $1 million on a shipment of masks in hopes the customs people look away,” said Tilton. “I’m not going to take any more orders until I know we can get everything through.”

A spokesperson for Customs and Border Patrol, which oversees all imports, said that the agency had recently intercepted various COVID-19-related products coming into the country because they were either counterfeit or not permitted, but could not elaborate on whether any were KN95 masks. An advisory paper published by law firm Covington and Burling last week predicted “increased screening, examination, and sampling at ports” of medical devices.


Scott Olson / Getty Images

Some believe that the FDA’s omission may be motivated by rising tensions between the US and China during the outbreak. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump made a point of referring to the pathogen as the “Chinese virus,” while last week Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s insistence on calling it the “Wuhan virus” led to the spiking of a G7 joint communiqué on the pandemic.

“It seems like this is happening for political reasons,” said Byron Walker, who owns SurivalFrog.com, an online store that focuses on survival gear. After noticing a month ago that his own small inventory of N95 masks had sold out overnight, he decided to try to import many more. He reached out to the Colorado Department of Human Services and agreed to sell it 50,000 masks at cost, and plans to donate an additional 10,000 masks to hospitals in Denver, where he lives.

After considerable effort, Walker was able to source the masks at a cost of more than $3 and is awaiting the first shipments early this week. But he says he could have ordered at least twice as many KN95 masks if they were permitted.

Vernessa Pollard, an attorney at McDermott Will & Emery whose practice focuses on FDA law and who formerly worked at the agency, dismisses such concerns. She said she was aware of several health care providers that had been inquiring about authorization from the FDA to import KN95 masks, and understood that the agency was reviewing scientific data to determine that the respirators were truly equivalent.

“My belief is the FDA is looking at the KN95 to be allowed to be imported,” Pollard said. “It’s science-based. I don’t believe there is anything political at all.”

In the meantime, however, prices for the US-approved N95 masks continue to surge. One survey of offers from China on Friday showed KN95 masks averaged significantly less than half the price — roughly $1.44 compared to $3.60 apiece.

Although some hospitals flat-out reject KN95 masks at any price on advice of their lawyers, people rounding up masks to give to hospitals have found that individual doctors or nurses will often accept the donations, given the dire need. On March 17, the CDC issued guidance saying that health care personnel could use bandanas, scarves, or other “homemade masks” as “a last resort.”

Despite the import restrictions, some KN95 masks are trickling through. The FDA has set up several special email addresses for inquiries about shortages, and several importers said that prior to the EUA issued last week, they had received guidance from agency officials that small shipments of KN95 would likely not be stopped at the border.


Courtesy of Jon Passantino

KN95 masks for sale for $8.99 at a market in Santa Monica, California, March 28.

Some of those masks are already working their way into the consumer marketplace. Although N95 masks have been sold out for at least a month, KN95s have begun appearing in retail stores.

The Farms, a neighborhood market in Santa Monica, California, had masks labeled “KN95” for sale at $8.99 for a two-pack, or close to $5 apiece with tax, on Saturday evening. According to an employee who answered the phone, they were sold out by the next morning. “We should have more tomorrow,” the employee said.

Karen Conway, an executive at GHX, which provides technological solutions to supply chain management for the health care industry, said that given the extreme shortages, “the most important thing is to get health care workers what they need.”


Ken Bensinger is an investigative reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Los Angeles. He is the author of "Red Card," on the FIFA scandal. His DMs are open.

An American Airlines Flight Attendant Has Died From The Coronavirus As Employees Fight For Safer Working Conditions

Paul Frishkorn is being remembered as a kind, passionate advocate for flight attendants.

Brianna Sacks BuzzFeed News Reporter March 27, 2020, at 5:13 p.m. ET

Association of Flight attendants, Matt York / AP

American Airlines on Friday confirmed that a flight attendant died on Monday after contracting the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Paul Frishkorn, who was based in Philadelphia and had been working as a flight attendant since 1997, is the first American Airlines employee to die from COVID-19, his union, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, said in a statement on Friday.

"Over the years he built a reputation as a consummate professional who was honored as one of American’s Flight Service Champions twice for his excellent service to our customers," American Airlines said.

The company recognized the 65-year-old's tireless dedication to his coworkers, calling him a "servant leader" through his work with the union throughout his career, as well as with the Association of Professional Flight Attendants.

"Our hearts go out to Paul’s loved ones, many of whom work for American," the airline said.

Frishkorn had been spending time in the Philadelphia crew room, helping other flight attendants by answering their questions and providing resources and information about the impacts of the coronavirus, Lori Bassani, president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, told BuzzFeed News in a statement.

"Paul’s death sheds a solemn light on our profession as front line workers. It underlines the risk to our members who continue to work as 'essential workers' in the airlines," she said. "Paul is the first of our colleagues to lose his life as a result of this deadly virus. We are deeply saddened and are reminded that no precaution is too much to take during this horrible time."

View this post on FacebookFacebook: afacwa

Friends, coworkers, and fellow flight attendants have been posting tributes to Frishkorn on Facebook, sharing their memories and grief over losing someone who was so dedicated to his job and passionate about helping others. They described him as a helpful and kind person who "helped thousands of flight attendants during his years at [US Airways] and later American."

"We flew together several times. He was a figure skater and was active in the world of figure skating after he stopped competing," Jody Jaeger wrote. "A wonderful person and professional to the core. That moment when somebody you know is taken by this virus changes everything."

Tracey Montanari, who worked with Frishkorn at US Airways, wrote on Monday: "The world lost a beautiful soul today... I have no words to describe this incredible loss."

Kristiano Rowland remembered the times Frishkorn used to come into his New York City bar when he was bartending; Frishkorn "talked [him] into finally applying for a flight attendant position," Rowland said.

"You motivated me to get my wings," he said. "And now you got an eternal set of wings. Fly high. Rest in peace, Paul."

Frishkorn's death comes as airline workers have been sounding the alarm over the dangers of working during the coronavirus pandemic, demanding in petitions that major companies stop nonessential flights and give their workers better compensation and protection for being on the front lines as COVID-19 cases soar.

Several workers from American Airlines have contacted BuzzFeed News over the past week, expressing their fears of working in close quarters without adequate protection or sanitization.

In a statement to BuzzFeed News, American said it has "taken enhanced steps to provide our team members with a safe, healthy and clean working environment" and is encouraging workers to use their vacation or sick time and stay home if they do not feel well.

If an employee does test positive for COVID-19, or is officially put under quarantine, the airline will give them an additional two weeks of paid sick leave.

However, like countless people across the US, if airline workers are feeling symptoms, it has been difficult to get tested and prove you have the virus.

One American Airlines employee told BuzzFeed News his doctor recommended he self-quarantine because he has an immunodeficiency caused by a previous illness. He has 10 days of sick time, he said, and if he tests positive, he'll get those two weeks of paid sick leave. But he hasn't been able to officially confirm he has the virus and will be on "unpaid leave" until he can.

"I expressed to them the lack of testing available," he said. "As my mother use to say, dammed if you do, dammed if you don’t."

In a letter on March 18, Bassani said that while the union had negotiated an extended leave option with some medical benefits, the group was "highly offended" that American Airlines "offered the pilot group financial benefits for two of the pilot options and would not consider the same for our group."

"This is a slap in the face for our members who are keeping this airline in the air — and it severely underestimates our relevance during this or any crisis," she wrote.

Bassani described the difficult working conditions flight attendants face, such as serving and interacting closely with travelers from all over, which makes social distancing nearly impossible.

"To exacerbate that situation, our company designed the interiors of our aircraft by stuffing in as many seats as possible, with passenger seats encroaching on our jump seat areas, airplane aisles more narrow than ever, and severely reducing space in galley areas, bathrooms, and spaces for passengers to wait in line for restrooms," she pointed out.

The president also noted that many flight attendants, like Frishkorn, are in a high-risk position and "flying at an older age than ever before because their pensions were stripped or frozen during the last crisis and they cannot afford to retire."


Sara Nelson@FlyingWithSara
The airline industry is in crisis. A lot of people are asking what to do. We have a plan that starts with workers. A thread: 1/1108:01 PM - 16 Mar 2020

Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, has been demanding protections for all workers as the aviation industry comes to a grinding, unprecedented halt. The organization represents 50,000 flight attendants across 20 airlines.

On Friday, the House passed a sweeping aid package that specifically addresses the concerns of airline workers and would help prevent employees from mass layoffs.

The Association of Flight Attendants thanked Congress for passing a #WorkersFirst aviation relief package "that includes direct financial assistance for airline workers' wages and benefits."

"The bill is historic. It will save our jobs and our industry. But it’s not perfect. We will continue to work with lawmakers, the administration, and our airlines to ensure the bill is implemented as intended. But also, we need to recognize that this is a baseline for our fight going forward," the group said.

United Airlines executives, for example, told employees that layoffs are still a possibility due to the dramatic drop in business, CNBC reported.


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Florida’s Tens Of Thousands Of Farmworkers Are Facing A Coronavirus “Time Bomb,” Advocates Say

Poor living conditions pose a threat to workers and America’s food chain, leading voices warn.
Michael SallahBuzzFeed News Reporter


Posted on March 30, 2020, at 8:53 p.m. ET
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Bloomberg / Getty Images
Workers pick and pack strawberries during a harvest at Fancy Farms near Plant City, Florida, U.S., on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015. Annual strawberry harvests in the area bring nearly $1 billion to the local economy, according to the Florida Strawberry Festival Growers Association. Photographer: Mark Elias/Bloomberg via Getty Images


With Florida's peak growing season underway, thousands of foreign guest workers are descending on farm fields to join a labor force that has endured the hardships of crowded boarding houses, law enforcement raids, and indentured servitude for generations.

But now the workers who are critical to the nation's food supply will face a nemesis they've never encountered.

The explosive growth of the novel coronavirus prompted one of the nation's oldest farm labor organizations on Monday to push for new safety standards for thousands of the workers and demand that growers provide medical care during outbreaks.

“If it reaches the agricultural community, it will devastate them,” said Baldemar Velasquez, founder of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee. “There won't be a safety net.”

The entry of the workers comes just days after the US State Department lifted restrictions on temporary work visas and allowed the laborers to enter during the busiest agriculture season in Florida, where the nation's largest supply of oranges, winter sweet corn, and other crops are harvested. Created decades ago, the guest worker program allows farmers to hire foreign laborers if they can show that no Americans are available to work the fields.

If the virus spreads among the workers — many of whom sleep in dilapidated trailers and cramped barracks — it could impact the spread of the illness among the laborers and the grower's ability to harvest the fields and stock American groceries.

Velasquez, who founded the advocacy group in 1967, said he is requesting that workers abide by social distancing rules, request isolation quarters if they get sick, and ensure their employers take them to hospitals.

If the growers refuse, Velasquez, who has led farm labor strikes, said his group is prepared to file lawsuits. “These are among the most vulnerable workers in the country,” he said. “It's a national problem.”

The son of Mexican migrant workers, Velasquez, 73, said he expects growers who signed contracts with farm labor groups will try to meet the demands. So far, about a third of the growers in North Carolina with those contracts have provided safeguards, including places for workers to be isolated, he said.

Florida, however, could be a “ticking time bomb,” said Greg Schell, a veteran attorney who has represented laborers there for decades. The state has a dark history of abusing its agricultural workers, dating to the 1940s, when the region's largest sugar grower was indicted for slavery — and later, when the town of Belle Glade was profiled in the Edward R. Murrow television documentary Harvest of Shame.

The guest workers “are in the middle of stinking nowhere,” Schell said. “They work on top of one another and they live on top of one another.”

Schell, who sued in 2001 to stop crew leaders from forcing workers to pay them kickbacks, said about 10,000 workers will be coming to Florida in the current wave, joining another 25,000 who have been in the state since January. By next month, Florida could have more guest workers than any state.



Spencer Platt / Getty Images
A woman walks along a street in the rural agriculture community of Immokalee on September 9, 2018 in Immokalee, Florida.
Florida Farming Community Still Struggles One Year After Hurricane Irma
IMMOKALEE, FL - SEPTEMBER 09: A woman walks along a street in the rural agriculture community of Immokalee on September 9, 2018 in Immokalee, Florida. The Immokalee community, which is made up mainly of seasonal farm workers, was severely effected by Hurricane Irma which caused severe flooding in the area. Nearly one year later many residents still haven't fully recovered from the storm. Mobile homes make up roughly a quarter of theÊhousing in Immokalee and many were destroyed in the category 3 storm that caused major damage throughout the state. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

He said his biggest concern is that most arrivals work for labor brokers — operators who work for the large farms and insulate the growers from any responsibilities.

Schell said he expects the laborers in the coming months to stay in the fields, "unless they're dropping dead."

One of the mainstays of farming in South Florida is the "mule train," a large flatbed contraption pulled through the field, with workers "who are often on top of one another" picking, shucking, and crating corn.

"I can't imagine anyone is going to be talking about social distancing," said Schell.

Also, most of the workers are transported in buses to and from the fields and orange groves. "They are packed in there,” Schell said. “No one is sitting one to a seat."

Some growers have provided better wages and work conditions over the years in Florida, but he said many of the smaller farmers are still under pressure to get their crops out of the fields and, in turn, are putting extreme demands on workers.

The Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association, which represents a broad swath of farmers, did not respond to questions provided by BuzzFeed News but referred all inquiries to the National Council of Agricultural Employers.

Michael Marsh, president of the growers council, said his organization is educating farmers through webinars and emails about their responsibilities to protect workers.

He said the recent $2 trillion spending bill enacted by Congress provides that guest workers receive emergency sick pay — but it's up to the farmers to provide protections, including social distancing and any facilities they build for quarantine.

"The risk would be for the farmer and if he has someone who is sick. He runs a bigger risk" by not protecting the other workers, Marsh said.

On a tip sheet offered by the organization to growers in California, employers are told to instruct workers who are sick to not report to work and to "tell them to contact a medical provider or physician by phone before going to the medical office, clinic, or emergency room. Another option is to contact a teledoctor."

Schell said because there is no government plan for the farmers, he expects some of the larger growers to offer protections, and others to cut corners and "hope nothing happens," he said. "They will be whistling by the graveyard."


Michael Sallah is a senior investigative reporter and editor for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington D.C. He is a recipient of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting and was twice named a Pulitzer finalist, once for public service in 2012 and the other for local reporting in 2016.

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The Coronavirus Outbreak Has Workers Who Care For The Elderly "Terrified"
Home health aides are at risk, and many of them are without adequate protection from COVID-19. “We really feel under threat.”

Miriam ElderBuzz Feed News Reporter March 28, 2020

Kathy Willens / AP
A home health aide checks her phone after disembarking from a bus in Brooklyn, March 26.

Every day, they fan out across New York — hundreds of thousands of home health aides entering the houses and apartments of the city’s most vulnerable, people who are old, infirm, and unable to care for themselves. Practicing social distancing is impossible for them; how can it not be when your job is to change a person’s clothes, roll them on their sides, and make sure they are getting bathed and fed?

Home health aides across the city, state, and country say they have been left exposed and unprotected as the coronavirus outbreak grows exponentially each day. Many say they have heard little to nothing from the agencies they work for, and have been given none of the basic things needed to try to keep themselves, and their at-risk patients, safe — including gloves, masks, and hand sanitizer.

“We really feel under threat. We don't feel safe,” said Sally, 35, who is originally from Tajikistan and has been working as a home health aide in New York for nearly four years. She currently has one regular patient, a woman in her nineties living in Queens who has dementia and doesn’t understand that she is living in the midst of a global pandemic.

On the days Sally is not with her, the agencies she works for deploy her across the city — a few hours with a patient in Brooklyn, a few hours with a patient in Queens, people she will likely never see again. Most home health aides sign up with multiple agencies and take clients wherever they can get them. Few make more than minimum wage.

“The patients need us to come, they need us to work, and they give us nothing,” Sally said. “I buy everything myself — I buy gloves, I buy sanitizer.” In the early days of the crisis, she found a set of 50 masks for $100, which she bought herself, someone who makes just over $12 an hour. Sometimes, she spends half her daily pay on a taxi, so she can avoid taking the subway. The agencies reimburse her for none of that, nor do they provide health insurance.

“Honestly, I feel terrified — it’s scary what’s going on around us,” said Sally, who, like other workers who spoke to BuzzFeed News, asked not to use their full names for fear of professional repercussions. “I travel from another part of the city to see my clients and, on the subway, you see fewer and fewer people like there was some sort of apocalypse.”

There are nearly 400,000 home health and personal care aides in the state of New York, and up to 75% of them work in New York City, according to the Home Care Association of New York State (HCA-NYS). A recent survey by the group found that 68% of agencies working in the state “do not have access to adequate personal protective equipment in their COVID-19 response.” They also found that nearly 50% of all agencies reported instances where patients or family were refusing entry to home health aides over coronavirus fears. That means aides don’t get paid. And while there’s been a loud discussion about the ethics of continuing to pay other service providers, like nannies and cleaners, it has not really extended to home health aides, who continue to work in the dark, like so much when the elderly are involved.

“Home care has been completely missing from all of the directives on the prioritization of supplies,” said Roger Noyes, spokesperson for HCA-NYS. “We’ve been raising this appeal repeatedly through every level of government.”

Nurphoto / Getty Images
A view of people wearing masks going about their daily lives in Queens, March 21.

“The directives are coming from the city, and that’s where the epicenter is — in the city the directives say priority supplies should be really reserved for hospitals, EMS, dialysis centers, nursing homes. Home care is just not even in the queue. Just to actually be mentioned in that directive,” he said. The group has begun hearing of instances where home health aides, many of whom are immigrants and/or people of color, have been stopped on their commutes by police enforcing New York’s shelter-in-place order, who have not recognized their agency ID as proof that they are essential workers, even though they are listed as such.

“Another thing we’re asking the local government is just to communicate out that home health care is under the governor’s order as an essential service, explicitly mentioned and to honor those credentials,” Noyes said. “It falls under the invisibility of our sector in the directives that are happening in a crisis like this.”

In New York, the issue has fallen victim to the endless tussle between the city and state. New York’s home health aides are “on the front lines of our healthcare system” and Gov. Andrew Cuomo is “committed to providing them with the supplies and equipment they need,” Gary Holmes, spokesperson for the state’s department of health, said in a statement. “We know home health care agencies are experiencing supply shortages, most urgently in New York City, but they should know help is on the way, as the Governor just announced the five boroughs will receive 169,000 N-95 masks, 430,850 surgical masks, 176,750 gloves, 72,561 gowns and 39,364 face shields, on top of the one million N95 masks the State already sent to New York City.”

While the current guidance from the CDC suggests that masks are not necessary for healthy people to avoid contracting the virus, there is now increased debate in the medical community about whether those guidelines should change, especially for people who are still out and working closely with others.

Patrick Gallahue, a spokesperson for the city’s health department, said New York City’s health care system “is facing a severe shortage of masks, gloves, and other key supplies that are needed to protect healthcare workers treating critically ill patients with COVID-19 infection in our hospitals” and warned that “local hospitals may run out of critical supplies within weeks at the current rate.”

“Therefore, we must prioritize ensuring the availability of protective equipment for health care workers working with patients with severe COVID-19 illness at this time,” he said.

Home health aides, moving around the city and coming into close contact with those believed to be most vulnerable to the coronavirus, argue they are also on the front lines.

They don’t have it easy in the best of times, as hourly wage earners who are often provided few or no benefits to do grueling work. In New York City, the people they care for often have no one else. It can feel like solitary work, depending on the health of the patient. And they do it all behind closed doors.

Jobina, who has worked as a home health aide in the city for nearly 14 years, said she was drawn to the job because “the elderly need help.” Now, she said, “I fear for my life.”

“How are we protected, how are we assured that we are not gonna contract [the coronavirus] and be fine?” she asked. She said her agency provides gloves but no masks and little guidance beyond “wash your hands before and after your shift.” She lives in the Bronx, and her sole client is there — a 45-minute bus ride away that fills her with stress every time.

Some home health aides faulted their agencies for failing to recognize the impact of the virus early on. “They should’ve prepared everything earlier,” said one woman, who works in Brooklyn and Queens and asked not to be named for fear she could be fired. The main agency she worked with, BNV Homecare, only sent out its first guidance on March 18, well into the crisis, announcing how employees could pick up gloves (but not masks). A second notice, sent two days later, informed employees that the main office had closed.

She has taken it upon herself to figure out how to keep herself, and her clients, safe during the crisis. “I wash my hands more often, disinfect all my outer clothes, disinfect every hour almost, wash the floors more often than I usually do, wash my hands really often,” she said. “Everyone is saying ‘Sit home and don't go out.’ It seems to me in such cases they should pay for our car rides, give us gloves and masks. There aren't masks anywhere; there aren't enough gloves.” BNV did not respond to a request for comment.

The issue is most acute in New York, which has become the epicenter of the coronavirus in the United States, with more than 46,000 known people infected with the virus, 549 of whom have died as of Saturday morning. But it extends around the country.

“They don't really look out for their caregivers in the way that I feel that they should, you know. I feel like we're doing as much as we can for other people, and the least that they can do is try to make things a little easier for us,” said Zoriah, 24, who is originally from Brooklyn and now works in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where she lives with her husband and 17-month-old daughter.

As it looked like the novel coronavirus was taking hold in the US, she reached out to her manager at Americare Home Solutions, asking if the agency would provide gloves and masks. “She said she would get back to me, but she never did.” The company only sent an email to its employees on March 16, outlining the basic guidance that had already become second nature to everyone around the country: Wash your hands often; don’t touch your face. Zoriah, who makes $11 an hour, said she took it to mean that the company was telling her: “You’re still on your own.”

Jamie Shea, the director of Americare Home Solutions, said, “We’ve had a lot of trouble, obviously, getting a lot of that stuff.” He said the company’s order for masks was on backfill, and just two-thirds of their order of 150 bottles of hand sanitizer was delivered on Thursday. “We are doing our best to keep up with it and make sure that our caregivers know what the risks are,” he said. “All we’ve been doing for the last two weeks is asking for donations. Anybody that has it, we’re willing to take it and use it for our clients and caregivers.” He did not have an answer for why they did not begin to prepare sooner.

Last week, Zoriah’s main client died — an 87-year-old man who had respiratory issues for years. His kidneys started shutting down, and within a week he was dead. It was the first time she had lost a patient, and she was there when it happened. The company gave her no time to grieve.

She spoke to the agencies that employ health care workers around the country. “I really want them to know that their caregivers — they do everything that they can to help these clients every day. And it makes our jobs so much easier if we had an agency that stands behind us. And that they would help make everything a lot easier by providing us with simple things like gloves or fake masks or hand sanitizer, for that matter,” she said.

“It's a tough job, and we don't get as much credit for it as other people do — but somebody's got to do it.”

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Miriam Elder is a political reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York. Her secure PGP fingerprint is 5B5F EC17 C20B C11F 226D 3EBE 6205 F92F AC14 DCB1


Contact Miriam Elder at miriam.elder@buzzfeed.com.


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Trader Joe’s Workers Are Terrified Not Enough Is Being Done To Keep Them And Customers Safe

Workers fear that even if a store itself is not contaminated, they may have been infected with the virus by a sick colleague.

Julia ReinsteinBuzz Feed News Reporter April 1, 2020

Gabriele Holtermann-gorden / Sipa USA via AP
People wait in line outside Trader Joe's in Cobble Hill in Brooklyn, March 16.

With their Hawaiian shirts, free samples, and friendly vibes, Trader Joe’s stores can seem more laid-back than other supermarkets.

But employees working during the coronavirus pandemic fear for their health and the safety of customers.

“People are generally scared. There’s a lot of people feeling that the company is not responding in a responsible fashion,” said one employee of the Trader Joe’s in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill neighborhood, who like several people in this article asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing his job.

More than half a dozen employees told BuzzFeed News that employees of at least four store locations in New York and Washington, DC, have tested positive for the coronavirus — but the locations have remained open with workers expected to come in as normal.

Like other supermarkets across the country, Trader Joe’s stores are staying open as essential businesses to ensure people can still get food and supplies during the pandemic. But employees say guidelines around store safety have varied; some stores have brought in professionals for a deep clean after COVID-19 cases were discovered, but other stores have not done so because of the amount of time that had passed since the sick staffer had worked.

Workers also fear that even if the store itself is not contaminated, they may have been infected by a sick colleague and might be unwittingly passing it on to each other and customers. All this is worsened by communication from their managers and corporate that the workers say has been poor and haphazard, leaving them feeling unsafe and undervalued.


Leigh Vogel / Sipa USA via AP
Shoppers wait in line outside a Trader Joe's in Washington, DC, March 21.

Two employees of the Cobble Hill store said one of their coworkers tested positive for COVID-19, and two more have been diagnosed as suspected cases by a doctor. The store remains open and has not closed for professional cleaning, they said.

For over a week, store managers did not inform staff of the case at any of their morning “huddles,” the employees said. Staffers only found out their coworker had tested positive “through the grapevine.”

On Monday night, the manager told staff in an email, seen by BuzzFeed News, about the two colleagues who had been diagnosed by doctors. The email does not mention the third aforementioned case, which was an employee who said in a Facebook post she had tested positive.

“Because the crew member [diagnosed by a doctor] was in the store 9 days ago, the CDC does not recommend cleaning beyond what we have already been doing,” the email states.

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The email does not advise staff members to quarantine themselves due to possible exposure. The staffers work in close quarters and are unable to follow CDC guidelines that recommend workers stay 6 feet away from each other. The incubation period for COVID-19 can last up to 14 days, meaning store employees are still at risk for developing symptoms they could pass on to each other and customers.

Employees have been permitted to take unpaid time off if they are concerned about contracting the virus — but doing so isn't feasible for most of them, with bills to pay and no end in sight for the pandemic.

Company spokesperson Kenya Friend-Daniel told BuzzFeed News all Trader Joe’s staffers have been granted seven extra days of paid sick leave and that the company is “providing up to two weeks of paid sick leave to all Crew Members quarantined for or diagnosed with the coronavirus.”

Additionally, corporate policy now allows for workers to wear gloves and masks — something many store managers were previously prohibiting. Friend-Daniel said plexiglass is being installed at store registers as well.


Courtesy of Sammy Almlah
Sammy Almlah at work at Trader Joe's.

Sammy Almlah, 26, who works at a Trader Joe’s in Westbury, New York, told BuzzFeed News two of his coworkers have tested positive for the coronavirus, and at least two more people have been experiencing symptoms.

On Monday night, the Westbury store manager sent out a nearly identical email to the one sent to Cobble Hill staffers, which stated that the employee had last worked seven days ago, so they would not need to take additional cleaning measures.

“I feel nervous going in because of my asthma and the fact that my girlfriend is immunocompromised,” Almlah said. “I can’t afford to not work unless I’d be getting paid time off, but that only will happen if I get COVID-19.”

Almlah said he was confused why his store didn’t close for cleaning, while a nearby store in Plainview closed for cleaning two days after a worker tested positive.


Anthony Behar / Sipa USA via AP
Customers stand in line in front of a Trader Joe's in Manhattan while observing social distancing, standing 6 feet apart, March 29.

Friend-Daniel, the company spokesperson, said Trader Joe’s works “closely with local, state and federal health officials and base all of our decisions on their guidance.”

“The health and safety of our Crew and customers remains our top priority through this crisis,” Friend-Daniel said.

As the pandemic has grown, Trader Joe’s has implemented “enhanced safety and sanitation measures,” Friend-Daniel said.

In some cases, stores have temporarily closed in order to undergo a deep clean after employees have tested positive for the coronavirus. “We take a hyper careful approach by closing stores in these instances, and we do not reopen a store until we are satisfied that further intense cleaning and sanitation has been completed,” Friend-Daniel said.

The Trader Joe’s in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood briefly closed over the weekend after four workers tested positive over the course of two weeks, one worker there told BuzzFeed News.

The Chelsea staffers were not told who exactly had tested positive, due to privacy regulations, but were told what shifts those people had worked.

“I was afraid because I work these shifts, these morning shifts, with some of the crew that tested positive,” the Chelsea worker said. “The store is only so big, so I was like, was I in close contact with this person? Should I take a leave and quarantine myself to see what happens?”

The worker at the Chelsea location said she lives with her grandmother and is afraid of getting her sick. “It’s anxiety-inducing,” she said. “I try to be as careful as I can be, but honestly it’s so hard.”

One employee who works at the Trader Joe’s in the Glover Park neighborhood of Washington, DC, told BuzzFeed News that staffers are “not encouraged to tell the customers” about positive or suspected cases in the store.

“They said to keep an awareness of what we say in front of the customers ... and if a customer asks, to tell a manager to talk to them,” she said.

But Friend-Daniel said news about store closures and positive or suspected COVID-19 cases is being shared on the Trader Joe’s website. No locations are currently closed, she said, and no mentions of any previous closures can be found on the company website. There are also no announcements listed for positive or suspected COVID-19 cases in stores.

In Hartsdale, New York, one Trader Joe’s employee has tested positive for the coronavirus, and another has been diagnosed as a suspected case by their doctor, according to one current and former employee.

Erica Mildner worked at the Hartsdale store until she quit March 20 after being sent home for asking to wear gloves, which previously were not explicitly permitted by the corporate office. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is now investigating her case.

Mildner said she does not trust Trader Joe’s guidelines regarding whether a store is closed for a deep cleaning.

“We all know it takes a few days to feel symptoms, get access to a test, and then get the results of that test,” Mildner said. “The CDC regulations that [managers] list [in their emails] basically say [they] understand the virus lasts on surfaces for two to three days at most. So based on the last date that the [sick] employee worked, that’s how we’ll decide whether or not to close the store.”

Essentially, by the time a sick employee can get a positive test back or a diagnosis from a doctor, that period of time in which the disease can be passed from touching surfaces has already ended.

But this does not take into account the coworkers who may have already touched those surfaces and contracted the virus and who may get sick and pass the virus along even further.

“It’s an impossible formula,” Mildner said.


Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
A Trader Joe's in Bailey's Crossroads, Virginia, Mach 31.

Earlier in March, Trader Joe’s announced all its workers would be granted a bonus due to sales skyrocketing amid the pandemic, which comes out to about an additional $2 per hour before taxes.

The bonus was announced after workers started a petition — which to date has been signed by over 20,000 people — calling for Trader Joe’s to pay its employees hazard pay at the rate of time and a half.

“The bonus, I think, was a way of attempting to shut us up about hazard pay,” said Almlah, the Westbury staffer. “I don’t think the check was worth the risk of being there. If anything it makes me more upset that they believe this is sufficient.”

The DC employee said her bonus for a month’s work came out to about $160, which she said feels inadequate considering the risk she’s putting herself and her partner in.




“A lot of us don’t feel safe,” the DC employee said. “Everyone’s really anxious.”

On Sunday, her store manager said in an email that one employee had tested positive for the coronavirus — and that because the employee had last worked 11 days ago, business would continue as usual.

Despite her fears, the DC employee said she has no choice but to keep working until she gets sick so she can take paid sick leave.

“I need to eat and I have rent,” she said. “I’m terrified of not working. I wake up anxious because I know it’s something that I have to do.”

UPDATE
April 1, 2020
After the company was contacted by BuzzFeed News for comment, the Trader Joe's website was updated to list stores temporarily closed for COVID-19 cleaning.