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Trump Admin Tells Immigration Courts to Remove Coronavirus Posters—Then Reverses Order

Hours after a newspaper exposed the order to remove coronavirus advice flyers from immigration courts, the Trump administration said it was a mistake.

Hours after the Miami Herald revealed that the Trump administration had told all immigration courts to remove coronavirus advice posters, the administration reversed the ban and claimed it was a mistake. The posters, produced by the CDC and printed in both Spanish and English, explained how to avoid catching and spreading the 2019 novel coronavirus. They were put up around courthouses after the union that represents U.S. immigration judges sent a message to judges suggesting they post the information in public areas. However, the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which falls under the Justice Department, told all court staff in an email Monday that the posters had to come down immediately.

“This is just a reminder that immigration judges do not have the authority to post, or ask you to post, signage for their individual courtrooms or the waiting areas,” Christopher Santoro, the country’s acting chief immigration judge, said in a mass email. On Tuesday morning, four hours after the Miami Herald wrote about the order, a Department of Justice spokesman contacted the newspaper to say that the “the signs shouldn’t have been removed. It’s now being rectified.” No explanation for the initial order was given.