About 25% of the migrants dropped off in a Texas border town tested positive for coronavirus, according to the director of the homeless shelter where Border Patrol agents are releasing the illegal immigrants they are catching, The Washington Times reported on Monday.
Shelter director Bill Reagan told a recent Harlingen City Commission meeting that there is not much that can be done, explaining, “We can’t quarantine them. Even though they test positive, they’re going to leave the next day. They’re going to get on the bus or the airplane, and they’re gone.”
The migrant surge, as well as the difficulties dealing with it, especially with the coronavirus, is occurring in other such border communities, with NBC News reporting similar circumstances in Brownsville, Texas.
Local officials in Arizona told The Washington Times that they don't have the capacity to test the migrants for COVID-19 or house them, and nonprofit groups were either not equipped or also did not have that capacity.
Reagan said that, in any case, the testing itself “is really almost useless because these folks have been in detention together, they’ve been in close quarters under difficult circumstances for weeks sometimes, they’ve been brought together on the bus. Some folks who test negative may have recently been exposed.”
The Biden administration has downplayed coronavirus risks related to the migrant surge and has refused to label the sharp rise in the number of illegal immigrants a “crisis,” instead calling it a “challenge.”
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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