Texas health officials reportedly sent 10,000 COVID-19 test kits to the Rio Grande Valley in response to the “swelling numbers” of migrants being released into communities in recent days. The migrants are being released by Border Patrol agents without being tested for the Coronavirus.
Texas State Senator Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa (D-McAllen) told Border Report that the City of McAllen “sounded the alarm” about migrants being released by Department of Homeland Security officials without being tested for the coronavirus. In response, Texas health officials quickly sent 10,000 COVID-19 test kits to the city.
Senator Hinojosa told Border Report the tests have only been requested by McAllen and not other cities in the Rio Grande Valley. He explained that the City of McAllen implemented a “local policy” to test the released migrants. Other communities in the region are “not necessarily” applying the testing policy.
In one McAllen facility, the Humanitarian Respite Center of the Rio Grande Valley, nearly 400 migrants have been released into their care. The migrant families in this facility told Border Report they were released by Border Patrol and were “paroled to temporarily live in the interior of the country,” the article states.
“(Border Patrol agents) were just dropping them off at the bus station without testing them. Obviously, that’s very alarming to all of us in that they’re coming from Central America and through Mexico and to be released into the United States without being tested for COVID is really unconscionable,” Hinojosa told Border Report.
Breitbart Texas reached out to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials for clarification and confirmation of the release of the migrants.
“As is always the case, persons taken into custody and processed under Title 8 are evaluated on a case-by-case basis for consideration of a custody re-determination pending an immigration hearing,” an unnamed CBP official told Breitbart Texas. “COVID-19 protocols, changes in Mexican law, and limited U.S. holding capacities have forced us to adapt.”
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s Sunday-morning talk show, What’s Your Point? Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX, Parler @BobPrice, and Facebook.
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