Mexican immigration officials on Sunday reportedly closed a border camp for Central American migrants – sending most of the 800 residents to the United States, regardless of their COVID-19 infection status – as a result of President Biden ending the “Stay in Mexico” policy “from former President Donald Trump.
Many of the asylum seekers arrived near Brownsville, Texas, where local officials said on Monday that there is an increasing number of infected migrants and nothing is being done to enforce quarantines.
Newly released migrants have not all been counted among the last positive results for COVID-19, but they can contribute to the growing number.
On Saturday, 185 of the 1,553 migrants tested at Brownsville’s central bus station since January 26 had tested positive for the virus, city spokesman Felipe Romero told Fox News.
Mexico’s Matamoros camp closed after Trump’s “Stay in Mexico” policy for Central Americans ended – according to which about 71,000 Central American asylum seekers awaited decisions in northern Mexico.
Republicans say Biden has unleashed a crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border by sending a message that new migrants will be welcome to the country – despite the White House saying that migrants should wait to return later due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday that it is not the job of the federal government to test migrants to COVID-19 before they are released. She said that this is the responsibility of state and local governments, and that nonprofits have, in some cases, “reserved hotel blocks” to help host COVID-19 positive people.
“When migrants are placed on alternatives to detention, their COVID-19 test – our policy is that the COVID-19 test is done at the state and local level and with the help of NGOs and local governments,” said Psaki.
“And this is certainly something that our policy is to have to be done, completed before they are even transferred to be with relatives or other people they know well, their cases are being tried.”
Texas GOP Governor Greg Abbott accused Biden last week of allowing “import” of COVID-19 through the release of migrants. The governor tweeted: “The Biden administration is recklessly releasing hundreds of illegal immigrants who have COVID in Texas communities. The Biden Admin. must IMMEDIATELY end this callous act that exposes Texans and Americans to COVID. “
Proponents of the “Stay in Mexico” policy say it prevents asylum seekers from entering the United States, despite knowing that their allegation of persecution is likely to be denied. Some asylum seekers in the U.S. are allowed to work while their applications are processed.
Opponents of the policy say northern Mexico can be just as dangerous as the crime-infested Central American countries from which candidates are fleeing.
Migrants who have already been held in border camps in Mexico while being prosecuted in the United States courts for entry are no longer detained as part of the Biden government that revoked the policy.
“The President of the United States, Biden, helps people because it is necessary, you know,” Mario Honduran, a Honduran migrant who spent eight months in a camp with his family and still hopes to enter the United States, told Fox News.
The White House admitted on Monday that it is not doing enough to discourage people from seeking illegal entry into the United States.
Psaki acknowledged the flaws after being pressured about how the government handled the situation.
“I would say it is clear that we need to work harder to get the message across and be very clear, now is not the time to come,” she said, before reiterating the Biden government’s statement that “most people who come to the border are rejected. “
“Yes, we have changed the policies of the last government with regard to unaccompanied children, but most families, adults, the vast, vast majority, are rejected at the border. And this is a message that we clearly need to continue to look for ways and ways to get out, you know, more and more to the region, ”she continued.
His comments followed the revelation that, under Biden, the Department of Homeland Security will convert two immigration families’ detention centers in southern Texas into Ellis Island-style rapid processing facilities, and has already emptied a facility in Pennsylvania.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement wrote in a court case last Friday that although families remain detained at their locations in Karnes City and Dilley, adults and children are all released within 72 hours.