Migrants Freed Into The US Following Biden’s Relaxed Border Policies Test Positive For Coronavirus

Migrants at the southern border, who were released into the country by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) following more relaxed border rules, reportedly tested positive for coronavirus.

Democrat President Joe Biden has reinstated the Obama-era’s “catch and release program” when he took office — a practice of releasing border crossers to communities while awaiting asylum and immigration hearings instead of holding them in immigration detention.

Critics have already earlier argued that this will only make it easier for migrants to live in the country illegally. And at the time of the coronavirus pandemic, the lenient border controls would also facilitate the undetected entry of the virus — in a major blow to the programs of the government meant to curb the spread of the deadly disease.

“Biden’s catch and release amnesty is now triggering a super spreader event at the southern border. Who could have ever seen this coming?” Republican strategist, Andrew Surabian wrote, as he cited an NBC News report detailing how asylum-seekers are testing positive for Covid-19 after being released by Border Patrol authorities.

6.3% of border crossers test positive

NBC News reported that in Brownsville, Texas specifically, where border crossers are being released, city officials have started testing for coronavirus and they told the publication that since the tests began on January 25, “almost 110 border crossers have tested positive” — translating to a 6.3% positive rate for the virus.

“Even after border crossers test positive, at least in Brownsville, they are not required to quarantine. Border crossers interviewed by NBC News said they had tested positive but were planning to continue traveling throughout the U.S. interior to states like North Carolina, Maryland, and New Jersey.” 

The report noted a certain Miriam Izaguirre, a 35-year-old asylum-seeker from Honduras, who crossed the Rio Grande at dawn with her young son saying she tested positive for COVID-19 after rapid tests were conducted at Brownsville bus station — already a “few hours later she was released.”

“Several of the asylum-seekers who tested positive told Noticias Telemundo Investiga they were planning to leave Brownsville for their destinations; one of them bought a bus ticket for the journey. Eva Orellana, 29, who is from Honduras and who tested positive, said she was going to take the bus to North Carolina with her 3-year-old daughter,” NBC said.

Even after border crossers test positive, at least in Brownsville, there’s no requirement to quarantine making it easier for those who tested positive for the disease to still move around.

This development came as President Biden maintains there is no crisis” at the US-Mexico border despite the surge of thousands of asylum seekers in the country’s borders. In January alone, 6,000 migrants aged 16 and 17 were reportedly caught entering illegally.

“Super spreader event” according to Cotton

Meanwhile, The DHS predicts there will be 117,000 unaccompanied child migrants crossing the border in 2021, according to an Axios report.

Biden was asked on March 2 whether he believes that there’s a brewing crisis on the southern border due to the unprecedented influx of asylum-seekers to the country.

“No,” the Democrat president replied. “We’ll be able to handle it,” he added.

Sen. Tom Cotton (Arizona), slammed the news and President Biden saying Biden’s border crisis is a “super spreader event.”

Democratic officials earlier urged President Biden “to go further in releasing border crossers into the US interior without being tested for the coronavirus.”

His DHS Secretary also echoed the same claim — despite saying that the Biden administration opened two overflow detention facilities.

Democrats push DHS to end Trump-era’s Title 42

Meanwhile, in a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, 61 House Democrats requested that the agency end the Trump-era program of invoking the Center for Disease Control’s Title 42 order — that has kept the rush of immigrants at bay.

Breitbart News reported that Biden’s DHS is considering ending Title 42 which was used by the former Trump administration to curb the flow of illegal immigration into the country citing the ongoing pandemic.

Title 42  paved the way for some 460,000 illegal immigrants to get expelled and deported from the US since March 2020. 

In the last four months, reports said between 62,000 to 65,000 border crossers have been removed from the US under Title 42.

Steeve Strange

Steeve is the CEO & Co-Founder of The Scoop.