Trump Admin Makes COVID-19 Situation Worse for Migrant Children and Naval Officers

Published: April 3, 2020, 6:40 p.m.

During the first half of the show, Leslie is joined by Hope Frye, an internationally recognized immigration lawyer focused on disadvantaged populations, especially women and children. She is the Co-founder and executive director of 'Project Lifeline,' a nonprofit focused on children who are or were in immigration detention in CBP jails, ORR shelters or ICE family detention facilities. Their mission spans the child’s experience with the goal of providing continuity of care. They are the only nonprofit with a medical and legal programs.

Leslie and Hope discuss two new court rulings, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, that could force Trump to release migrant children and parents. His administration is facing a spate of lawsuits across the country calling on them to close immigration courts and release migrants from often overcrowded, unsanitary detention facilities that medical experts have said are “tinderboxes” for the virus.  A Federal Judge reviewing the situation called the detention facilities “hotbeds for contagion” that pose “unprecedented threats” of “irreparable harm” amid the pandemic.

The website for 'Project Lifeline' is www.ProjectLifeline.us and their Twitter handle is @ProjLifeline.

During the second half of the show, Leslie is joined by Colonel Cedric Leighton, Founder and President of Cedric Leighton Associates, a strategic risk and leadership consultancy serving global companies and organizations.  He founded the company in 2010, after serving in the US Air Force for 26 years as an Intelligence Officer and attaining the rank of Colonel. 

They discuss Navy Captain Brett Crozier, who was fired just four days after he pleaded for help as the coronavirus ravaged his crew on the USS Theodore Roosevelt. Crozier had sent an urgent letter to the U.S. Navy on Sunday, seeking to evacuate and isolate the crew as cases of coronavirus infection increased on the aircraft carrier.  Some 113 members of the crew had tested positive as of yesterday, which is by far the U.S. military’s largest coronavirus outbreak to date in the pandemic.Videos posted on social media showed a huge send-off for Captain Crozier, with hundreds of service members on the hanger deck of the vessel, which is currently docked in Guam, chanting "Captain Crozier! Captain Crozier!" and clapping.

Colonel Leighton's website is www.CedricLeighton.com and his Twitter handle is @CedricLeighton.