Abbott rejects federal aid to test migrants
Gov. Greg Abbott appeared last week to rebuff help from the federal government to give coronavirus testing to migrants before they are released from federal custody, saying it’s a federal responsibility to screen immigrants.
The announcement came after Abbott, a Republican, accused the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden of “releasing immigrants in South Texas that have been exposing Texans to COVID.” The Biden administration denied that Thursday, and CNN reported that Abbott was “stalling” on a federal offer to pitch in on testing migrants.
Abbott and Biden have been fighting for days over coronavirus safety protocols and whose actions have been putting the health of Texans at risk.
After Abbott announced that he was lifting Texas’ statewide mask mandate and capacity restrictions on businesses, Biden called the decision “Neanderthal thinking.” Abbott shot back that Biden’s immigration policies were the real threat to Texans. He accused the president of “recklessly releasing hundreds of illegal immigrants who have COVID into Texas communities.”
Asked for evidence of that claim, Abbott’s office pointed to reports by NBC News, Fox News and the New York Post indicating that 108 migrants had tested positive since Jan. 25 in Brownsville after being released by federal authorities.
The city of Brownsville has been conducting the tests since late January. It’s unclear how many of the asylum seekers are staying in Texas. Most migrants who are apprehended by or surrender to federal authorities leave for other states.
NBC reported that 6.3 percent of the migrants tested were confirmed to have the coronavirus. That is lower than the positivity rate statewide of 8.3 percent over the past seven days.
After Abbott began upbraiding Biden for releasing the migrants, CNN reported that the Department of Homeland Security had tried to use Federal Emergency Management Agency dollars to help local officials test migrants released from federal custody and isolate them if they test positive. The grant required state approval, CNN reported.
Abbott seemed to make clear Thursday that he was not interested in the federal offer. He said in a statement that border security is “strictly a federal responsibility,” and thus the Biden administration alone should “test, screen, and quarantine” migrants.
“Instead of doing their job, the Biden administration suggested it did not have sufficient resources and, remarkably, asked Texas to assist them in aiding their illegal immigration program,” Abbott said. “Texas refused.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said federal policy is that coronavirus testing of migrants released from custody should “be done at the state and local level with the help of NGOS (nongovernmental organizations) and local governments.” She added that migrants should be tested “before they are even moved to go stay with family members or others they may know while their cases are being adjudicated.”
Since before the 2020 election, the number of migrants apprehended on the border has increased significantly. From October through January, more than 296,000 have been apprehended. Some 458,000 were apprehended in the entire 2020 federal fiscal year, according to federal statistics.
The Biden administration has halted a Trump administration policy that required tens of thousands of asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their hearings in American courts. Some of those migrants began entering Texas last week at Brownsville and El Paso, but they are tested for COVID-19 before entering, said Ruben Garcia, director of the Annunciation House shelter network, which is housing the migrants temporarily.
The release of asylum seekers from custody with notices to appear has been a lightning rod issue for Republicans who claim that most asylum seekers ignore the notices and instead try to live in the shadows unlawfully.
A 2019 study by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, which tracks immigration court cases, found that more than 80 percent of migrants show up for court hearings, and that the percentage increases to nearly 100 percent if asylum seekers have legal representation.
Texas has been sending test kits to border communities. The Texas Division of Emergency Management said it has provided tests to “local officials in 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 the testing need not being fulfilled by the federal government,” a division spokesperson said.