EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS: Texas Border Crisis Turns Hotels into COVID Quarantine Centers

McALLEN, Texas — Many hotels and motels in downtown McAllen, Texas, bustled with migrants on Saturday who had been recently released by Border Patrol officials. Medical personnel checked on many of the migrants on the hotel grounds.

The migrants could be seen being led by health care workers in smocks escorting them into the hotel lobbies and going door to door with clipboards to speak to those staying in the rooms.

The hotels, many from recognizable national chains, are being used as an overflow facility for a local migrant shelter in downtown McAllen. The Catholic Charities Respite Center is struggling to cope not only with the increase in illegal migrant traffic but also the increase in COVID-Positive migrants being released by the Border Patrol. Nearly 1,000 migrants are released daily to the shelter by the Border Patrol.

A spokesperson for the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) spoke to Breitbart Texas about their concerns with the current situation in McAllen regarding COVID-19 encounters.

“The National Border Patrol Council is extremely concerned with the administration turning a blind eye to the massive influx of illegal crossings along the southern border. It has been reported that in the last week, more than 1,500 COVID positive illegal border crossers have been released into the City of McAllen alone,” the spokesperson said.

According to a recent news report, there are ten hotels in the downtown McAllen area that are used as COVID-19 quarantine sites by the Catholic Charities Respite Center. This fiscal year, according to ICE, $86.9 million will be spent on hotel rooms to accommodate released migrants.

Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.