The Epoch Times posted an article today about the Covid crisis at our southern border.
The article reports:
Four in 10 illegal immigrants released in a city last week near the U.S.-Mexico border tested positive for COVID-19, according to officials there.
“That was very high,” Pete Saenz, the mayor of Laredo, told The Washington Examiner.
Dr. Victor Trevino, the Laredo health authority, confirmed the numbers with the paper.
Officials in Laredo, a Texas city that is located across the Rio Grande from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, did not return requests for comment, but they offered a similar positivity percentage in a federal lawsuit last month.
Officials said in the complaint that Customs and Border Protection officials have been dropping off immigrants in the city despite large numbers of them testing positive for COVID-19, the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.
The surge in illegal immigrants crossing the border amid the COVID-19 pandemic presents a safety concern, Republican lawmakers and others argue.
“Americans are sick and tired of endless mandates while watching COVID-19 cases surge at the border,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) said on Twitter this week.
The Laredo case numbers are the highest recorded along the border, but officials in McAllen said last week that out of 7,000 immigrants released by federal officers into the city the week before, 1,500 tested positive for COVID-19.
Americans are being threatened with vaccine passports while we are importing the coronavirus into our nation at the southern border. How does that make sense?
The article concludes:
On Thursday, a spokesperson told The Epoch Times via email that “the border is not open” and that the agency is operating under Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines for the pandemic.
“CBP is making every effort to remain within CDC guidelines and mitigate long periods of processing and holding to minimize potential exposure to our workforce, those in custody, and the community. Once processing is complete, these individuals will be expeditiously transferred out of CBP custody,” the spokesperson said.
The lawsuit was dismissed on Monday after the parties entered an agreement.
Saenz told outlets that the agreement includes the city not accepting immigrants who have been dropped off by Border Patrol. Instead, the city is hiring a charter bus company to immediately bus them to other cities, including Austin and Houston.
“We entered into an understanding that we would drop the lawsuit, which we did, and then Border Patrol would deliver these migrants, about 200 or so per day, to a city facility that we leased and then we, in turn as a city retained a bussing company to transport these migrants farther north here in Texas,” Saenz told Border Report.
The statement that “the border is not open” does not ring true in view of the actual number of people crossing our southern border illegally. I wonder how many would be crossing if the border were open. Meanwhile, Americans are dying because of the spread of the coronavirus by illegal immigrants who are not subject to the same rules as American citizens.