Greg Abbott turned down the help of the Biden administration to test the COVIDs of the immigrants

Gov. Greg Abbott appeared this week to reject the federal government’s help in testing coronavirus for migrants before they are released from federal custody, saying it is a federal responsibility to examine immigrants entering Texas.

The announcement came after Abbott, a Republican, repeatedly accused the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden of “freeing immigrants in South Texas who have been exposing Texans to COVID.” The Biden administration denied this Thursday and CNN reported that Abbott was “stopped” in a federal bid to present evidence of migrants.

Abbott and Biden have been fighting for days over coronavirus security protocols and whose actions have put the health of jeans at risk. After Abbott announced this week that he was lifting the Texas state mask mandate and capacity restrictions on businesses, Biden called the decision “Neanderthal thinking.” Abbott responded in several interviews and posts on social media that Biden’s immigration policies were the real threat to Texans and accused the president of freeing migrants with COVID-19 in Texas.

“The Biden Administration recklessly releases hundreds of illegal immigrants who have COVID into Texas communities,” Abbott wrote in a tweet Wednesday afternoon.

When asked for evidence of this claim, Abbott’s office noted reports from NBC News, Fox News and the New York Post earlier this week that 108 migrants had tested positive since Jan. 25 in Brownsville. after being released by federal authorities. The city has been conducting the tests since the end of January. It is not clear how many of the asylum seekers stay in Texas. Most migrants captured by or surrendering to federal authorities tend to move to places further north.

Migrants released from custody while their asylum cases are pending receive notices to appear in court, a document that, when issued, indicates the start of the procedure for deporting migrants if they cannot convince federal authorities who have a right to stay. The South Texas Office of Customs and Border Protection did not respond to a request for comment to learn more about the testing process.

The tests in Brownsville were administered by the city. NBC reported that it was confirmed that 6.3% of the migrants analyzed had coronavirus. This rate is lower than the statewide positivity rate, at which an average of 8.3% of tests came back positive over the past seven days. The 108 tests conducted over the past five weeks are a small part of the more than 3,800 confirmed cases in Cameron County reported by the state since Jan. 25.

After Abbott began reprimanding Biden for releasing migrants, CNN reported that the Department of Homeland Security had attempted to use dollars from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help local officials test migrants released from custody. federal and isolate them if they tested positive. The grant money needed state approval to be allocated, CNN reported.

Abbott seemed to make it clear Thursday that he was not interested in the federal offer. He argued in a statement that border security is “strictly a federal responsibility” and therefore the Biden administration should only “test, examine and quarantine” immigrants who may have COVID-19.

“Instead of doing their job, the Biden Administration suggested that they did not have sufficient resources and remarkably asked Texas to help them help its illegal immigration program,” he said. Abbott. “Texas refused.”

Asked about Abbott’s statement, the White House referred to comments Secretary of State Jen Psaki made Thursday that federal policy is to test coronavirus for migrants released from custody “to be done at the state level and local with the help of NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] and local governments. “He added that the policy states that immigrants should be tested” even before they move to stay with family members or others they may meet while their cases are being resolved. “.

Since before the 2020 elections, the number of migrants captured at the border has increased significantly. From October to January, more than 296,000 undocumented immigrants have been captured. This represents more than half of the 458,000 detainees during the entire federal fiscal year of 2020, according to federal statistics.

The Biden administration has also stopped adding immigrants to Trump-era migrant protection protocols, which forced tens of thousands of asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their hearings in U.S. courts. Some of the first MPP arrivals began entering Texas last week in Brownsville and El Paso, but they are being tested for COVID-19 before entering, confirmed Ruben Garcia, the network’s director. shelters of the Annunciation House that temporarily accommodates migrants.

The release of asylum seekers from custody in the presence of warnings has been a lightning rod problem for Republicans who incorrectly claim that most asylum seekers ignore warnings and instead try to living in the shadows illegally. A 2019 study by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, which uses Freedom of Information Act requests to track immigration court cases, found that more than 80% of all migrants appear at their court hearings and this number increases to almost 100% if asylum seekers are represented.

But Abbott said Thursday that Texas “will not help a program that makes our country a magnet for illegal immigration.”

However, Texas has already sent evidence to border communities. The Texas Division of Emergency Management confirmed to Tribune that it has provided evidence to “local officials from border communities who have been responding to an influx of individuals crossing the international border.”

“Since the end of January, the state has provided 40,000 COVID-19 tests to Brownsville, McAllen, Laredo and Del Rio to meet tests that the federal government does not have to meet,” said division spokesman Seth Christensen . statement.

As for whether the state will provide more evidence to border cities, Christensen said TDEM “has no pending applications from our local partners to test resources.”

Abbott’s comments about migrants with coronavirus have caused consternation among many border advocates. The governor, along with other Texas politicians, has a history of describing immigrants in terms that suggest they are a threat. In 2019, a day before a gunman targeting Mexicans killed 22 people in El Paso, Abbott sent a campaign email asking his defenders to “DEFEND” Texas on the border. He later said “mistakes were made” on the mail.

Clara Long, associate director of the U.S. Human Rights Watch program, said Abbott’s comments this week are disturbing but not surprising, as the governor tries to distract himself from his own executive order, which critics say will put at risk jeans.

“The fact that it is just a political statement seems so revealed by the mask [order], “she said.” Do you care about people’s health or not? But it’s clear it’s not about protecting jeans or protecting migrants. It’s about political gain. “