Millions of Americans remain under business restrictions, mask mandates, and quarantine requirements as foreign nationals testing positive for the Chinese coronavirus are traveling freely into the United States interior.
This week, as President Joe Biden’s administration continues releasing thousands of border crossers into the U.S. interior after restarting the Catch and Release program, a report by NBC News confirmed that at over 100 border crossers released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Most notably, towns along the U.S.-Mexico border are being forced to test border crossers after they are released by DHS because the agency has no testing requirements. Even after border crossers test positive, they are not required to quarantine and continue traveling into the U.S. interior as many are doing.
“On the way, we were wearing a mask all the time, gel, washing our hands. Really, I don’t feel anything,” a released border crosser who tested positive told NBC News. The Honduran national continued traveling to North Carolina after finding out she had coronavirus.
So far, the positivity rate for released border crossers in Brownsville, Texas, is 6.3 percent. The positivity rates for border crossers released in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California, are not known.
On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki seemingly confirmed, again, that the administration continues to have no testing or quarantine requirements for border crossers being released into the U.S. interior.
“Isolating, quarantining is a part of what our recommended health guidelines are and certainly part of what happens at the border when there are symptoms that are displayed and when testing is done,” Psaki said during a press briefing.
In comparison, millions of Americans remain under strident restrictions and the Biden administration has slammed states such as Texas, Mississippi, and Florida for fully opening without restrictions.
More than 30 states in the U.S. continue to have mask mandates, where Americans are required to wear masks in public places. Most states still have capacity limits on indoor spaces, limiting the number of customers and often hours that a business can operate in one day.
In a state like California, for instance, out-of-state residents are advised not to travel to the state and at least two counties continue to require out-of-state residents to quarantine for 10 days when they do travel to the regions.
Maryland, similarly, requires out-of-state travelers to get a negative coronavirus test within 72 hours of their travel or undergo a 10-day quarantine after arriving in the state. New York continues to have low capacity limits on certain businesses it deems “non-essential” as well as mandatory masks in public.
Washington, D.C., with some of the harshest lockdown orders, has continued to impose a 25 percent capacity limit on restaurants and limiting the number of people in an indoor gathering to 10 people. Nightclubs and libraries in Washington, D.C. remain closed.
In Virginia, bars and restaurants must be closed by midnight.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), one of the first governors to get rid of all restrictions and limit local governments’ ability to impose restrictions, previously noted the Biden administration’s openness to the world’s migrants while advocating lockdowns for Americans.
“It is a huge contradiction, and you can’t square wanting open borders for illegal aliens but then also restricting U.S. citizens from traveling around the country as they see fit, and I think the American people see the hypocrisy in that,” DeSantis said last month.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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