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Law360 (March 23, 2020, 7:01 PM EDT) -- President Donald Trump has promised that immigration authorities won't arrest unauthorized immigrants who seek testing for COVID-19 at hospitals, as the number of confirmed cases in the U.S. surpasses 33,000.
Trump said at a Sunday press conference alongside Vice President Mike Pence and Surgeon General Jerome Adams that unauthorized immigrants who seek testing for the novel virus will not be sent back to their native countries.
"We will test that person because I think it's important that we test that person," Trump said. "And we don't want to send that person back into wherever we're going to be sending the person — whether it's another country or someplace else."
The number of reported coronavirus cases in the U.S. totaled 33,404 on Monday, while the number of deaths has reached 400, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website.
Pence remarked that U.S. Customs and Border Protection, an agency that enforces U.S. border controls, had already issued a statement saying that its agents will not target health care facilities.
"They issued a very clear statement, making it clear to any person that is in need of a test or medical care that Customs and Border Protection is not focusing on emergency rooms or health clinics or the drive-through clinics," Pence said.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that is in charge of domestic immigration enforcement, said in a March 18 statement that it would be limiting arrests to immigrants who have criminal backgrounds and would not be taking enforcement actions in hospitals, emergency rooms, doctors' offices and other health care facilities.
ICE has come under fire in recent months for arresting unauthorized immigrants in courthouses across the U.S. and is facing lawsuits in Massachusetts, New York and Washington state. Attorneys general from 13 states and the District of Columbia threw their support behind Washington's suit, which alleges ICE is harming the state's judicial system by causing delays to court proceedings.
But ICE said last week that amid the coronavirus outbreak unauthorized immigrants should not avoid getting medical attention out of fear of being arrested or deported.
--Editing by Gemma Horowitz.
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