Sometimes they do take my breath away. This is one of those times. The Miami Herald reports:

Immigration court staff nationwide were ordered by the Trump administration to take down all coronavirus posters from courtrooms and waiting areas.

The Executive Office for Immigration Review, which falls under the Department of Justice, told all judges and staff members in an email Monday that all coronavirus posters, which explain in English and Spanish how to prevent catching and spreading the virus, had to be removed immediately.

So that immigrants will have a better shot at catching the virus, I guess. Which is breathtaking even for them.

“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,” wrote Christopher A. Santoro, the country’s acting chief immigration judge in a mass email to immigration court administrators nationwide.

“Per our leadership, the CDC flyer is not authorized for posting in the immigration courts. If you see one (attached), please remove it. Thank you.”

And “authorization” is important in this context because? It’s worth ordering federal courts to take down posters with advice on how to avoid a growing epidemic because…what, exactly? Court house aesthetics are worth suffocating to death?

However on Tuesday morning— just four hours after the Miami Herald published this story—a Department of Justice spokesman contacted the Herald to say that the “the signs shouldn’t have been removed. It’s now being rectified.”

Officials declined to discuss why the email was sent in the first place, and who told the chief immigration judge to issue the directive.

I bet they did. It would be very hot-making to have to discuss the fact that the president and his tools are actively trying to spread COVID 19 among immigrants.