Illegal Chinese migrant ‘exposed hundreds of people in Louisiana to rare TB variant’ as state sues DHS and Mayorkas

Louisiana is suing top US officials after a Chinese migrant entered the state illegally and exposed hundreds of people to a deadly form of tuberculosis.

The court case The name is specifically given to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, claiming that “through his official capacity” as Secretary of Security, he allegedly allowed the sick detainee to travel through Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities.

The lawsuit states that Louisiana is in an “emergency situation” because the Chinese national “has a rare, aggressive and drug-resistant form of tuberculosis, which carries high mortality rates.”

The state said the migrant traveled from Louisiana facilities in Monroe, Basile and Lafayette, uncovering more than 200 detainees and “untold numbers of non-detainees.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the detention centers are also named as defendants in the lawsuit.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill’s office is requiring medical examinations of ICE detainees before leaving detention centers to prevent tuberculosis from spreading further.

Local point of sale WDSU reported that sources say ICE is refusing to comply, prompting the lawsuit.

Now a federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order to keep the Chinese national in custody while the state works to resolve the situation.

The lawsuit against Mayorkas is pending in federal court.

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry said at a news conference: “At this time we have no indications that the public is in any danger.”

The lawsuit, which conceals much of the Chinese migrant’s personal information, alleges they traveled from their home to Mexico, where they illegally crossed the U.S. border. The migrant was apprehended in California in July 2024.

Officials then took the migrant on a plane with 100 other inmates to Alexandria, Louisiana, where they then boarded a bus with 40 others and were taken to Richwood Correction Center in Monroe.

The lawsuit alleges that some of those 40 people have since been deported, transferred or released.

The Chinese national was tested for tuberculosis upon arrival in Richwood and three days later the results were found to be ‘very positive’.

Tuberculosis (TB) is considered serious by health officials. It is an infection of the lungs that occurs when someone inhales the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

It can also infect the brain, kidneys and spine.

The bacteria that cause tuberculosis are spread from person to person through small airborne droplets released when coughing and sneezing.

It used to be one of the deadliest diseases in the world, with the earliest known cases occurring early in human history.

But in areas of the world where people can be vaccinated, screened, diagnosed early and treated for the infection, treatment success can be nearly 90 percent.

However, tuberculosis grows slowly and may not be discovered until eight to 10 weeks after exposure, allowing the disease to spread unknowingly. It is difficult to detect in the early stages, but symptoms include persistent coughing, coughing up blood, night sweats, weight loss and fever.

In this case, the migrant would have ‘resistant’ tuberculosis, or tuberculosis bacteria that are resistant to at least one of the most effective tuberculosis drugs and treatment regimens.

According to the NIHThere were 9,615 cases of tuberculosis in the US last year, a 16 percent increase from 2022 and an eight percent increase from pre-pandemic numbers in 2019.

Overall, tuberculosis cases increased by 15 percent, from 2.5 cases per 100,000 people in 2022 to 2.9 cases per 100,000 people in 2023.

A separate report from the NIH named China one of the 30 countries with a high TB ​​burden in the world. The incidence of tuberculosis fell by 43.1 percent between 1990 (130 cases per 100,000 people) and 2010 (74 cases per 100,000 people).

In 2019, there were approximately 833,000 new cases of tuberculosis in China, with a tuberculosis incidence of 58 cases per 100,000 people.

In addition, China has the highest latent TB infections (cases where someone is infected with the bacteria but does not have the disease) in the world, with approximately 350 million infections at risk of developing into active TB cases.