Mexican migration officials reportedly closed a border camp to Central American migrants on Sunday – most of the 800 residents sent to the US regardless of COVID-19 infection status – as a result of former President Donald Trump’s policies ending in Mexico . .
Many of the asylum seekers reached nearby Brownsville, Texas, where local officials said Monday that there is a growing number of infected migrants and nothing is being done to enforce quarantines.
The newly released migrants were not all counted among the latest COVID-19 positive results, but may contribute to the growing figure.
As of Saturday, 185 of the 1,553 migrants tested at the Brownsville central bus station had tested positive for the virus since Jan. 26, city spokesman Felipe Romero told Fox News.
The camp in Matamoros, Mexico, was closed following the end of Trump’s “Stay in Mexico” policy for Central Americans – including about 71,000 Central American asylum seekers in northern Mexico awaiting verdicts.
Republicans say Biden triggered a crisis at the US-Mexico border by sending a message that new migrants will be welcomed into the country – despite the White House saying migrants will have to wait to arrive later because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
White House press officer Jen Psaki said Thursday that it is not the federal government’s job to test migrants for COVID-19 before they are released. She said this is the responsibility of state and local governments, and that in some cases nonprofits have “reserved hotel blocks” to help accommodate COVID-19 positive people.
“When migrants are placed in alternatives to detention, their COVID-19 testing must be done – our policy is that COVID-19 testing be conducted at the state and local levels and with the help of NGOs and local governments,” Psaki said .
“And that is certainly something that is done according to our policy, completed before they are even moved to stay with relatives or others who they may know are on trial.”
Texas GOP Governor Greg Abbott last week accused Biden of allowing the “import” of COVID-19 through the release of migrants. The Governor tweeted: “The Biden administration is recklessly releasing hundreds of illegal immigrants with COVID into communities in Texas. The Biden administrator. must IMMEDIATELY end this harsh act that exposes Texans and Americans to COVID. “
Proponents of the “Stay in Mexico” policy say it prevents asylum seekers from entering the US, despite knowing their claim of prosecution is likely to be dismissed. Some asylum seekers in the US are issued a work permit while their applications are being processed.
Opponents of the policy say Northern Mexico could be just as dangerous as the crime-ridden Central American countries from which applicants are fleeing.
Migrants who were once held in border camps in Mexico while being tried in US courts for entry are no longer held as part of the Biden administration rolling back the policy.
“The President of the United States, Biden, is helping the people because it is necessary, you know,” Mario, a Honduran migrant who has spent eight months in a camp with his family and is still awaiting entry into the US, told me. Fox News.
The White House admitted on Monday that it is not doing enough to discourage people from seeking unlawful entry into the United States.
Psaki acknowledged the failures after being pressured over the way the administration handled the situation.
“I would say it is clear that we need to work more to get the message across and be very clear, this is not the time to come,” she said, before reiterating the Biden government’s claim that “the majority of people who come to the border are rejected. “
“Yes, we have changed the last government’s policy on unaccompanied children, but the majority of families, adults, the vast majority are sent away from the border. And that’s a message that clearly we need to keep looking for means and ways to, you know, get out of the region more and more, ”she continued.
Her comments followed the revelation that the Department of Homeland Security under Biden will convert two immigrant family detention centers in South Texas into Ellis Island-style high-speed processing facilities, and that it has already emptied a facility in Pennsylvania.
Immigration and customs enforcement wrote in a lawsuit last Friday that while families are being held at the Karnes City and Dilley locations, adults and children will all be released within 72 hours.