Report: Border Crossers Released into U.S. by Biden Officials Test Positive for Coronavirus

Border crossers released into the interior of the United States by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials have tested positive for the Chinese coronavirus just as President Joe Biden has denied that there is “a crisis” at the U.S.-Mexico border.

After taking office, Biden reinstated the Catch and Release program where border crossers are freed into the U.S. interior while they await asylum and immigration hearings that many do not ultimately attend, instead opting to live illegally in the country.

Aside from about 25,600 migrants enrolled in the now-canceled Remain in Mexico program, border crossers released into the U.S. interior are not required to test negative for the coronavirus. Instead, communities along the border are being forced to test border crossers themselves.

A report by NBC News on Tuesday confirmed that border crossers are testing positive for the coronavirus after being released by DHS officials into the U.S. interior:

Miriam Izaguirre, a 35-year-old asylum-seeker from Honduras, crossed the Rio Grande at dawn Monday with her young son and turned herself in to the authorities. [Emphasis added]

A few hours later she was released, and the first thing she did was take a rapid test for Covid-19 at the Brownsville bus station. They told her her test came out positive. [Emphasis added]

…

Several of the asylum-seekers who tested positive told Noticias Telemundo Investiga they were planning to leave Brownsville for their destinations; one of them bought a bus ticket for the journey. Eva Orellana, 29, who is from Honduras and who tested positive, said she was going to take the bus to North Carolina with her 3-year-old daughter. “On the way, we were wearing a mask all the time, gel, washing our hands,” she said. “Really, I don’t feel anything.” [Emphasis added]

In Brownsville, Texas, where border crossers are being released, city officials are having to test for the coronavirus. Since city officials began testing on January 25, they told NBC News that that almost 110 border crossers have tested positive. This is a positivity rate of 6.3 percent.

Even after border crossers test positive, at least in Brownsville, they are not required to quarantine. Border crossers interviewed by NBC News said they had tested positive but were planning to continue traveling throughout the U.S. interior to states like North Carolina, Maryland, and New Jersey.

The report comes as Biden, just today, said there is no “crisis” at the U.S.-Mexico border. On Monday, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas also said there was no crisis at the border, claiming the administration is “managing” a massive influx of illegal immigration and releases of border crossers into the U.S. interior.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), along with other Senate Republicans, demanded answers from the Biden administration last month on their release of border crossers without coronavirus testing requirements after Breitbart News pressed White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on the issue.

Shoutout to @BreitbartNews‘ @charliespiering who pressed @PressSec about this very issue almost a month ago. Shockingly, Psaki dodged his question and it’s now clear that the Biden Administration doesn’t have a plan to deal with this. https://t.co/YZM6KXwdTq

— Andrew Surabian (@Surabees) March 3, 2021

Days later, DHS officials confirmed to Breitbart News that border crossers were, in fact, being released into the U.S. interior without being tested for the coronavirus.

“President Biden’s border crisis is a superspreader event,” Cotton wrote on Tuesday.

President Biden’s border crisis is a superspreader event. https://t.co/IwphAnqrzn

— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) March 3, 2021

Elected Democrats last week urged the Biden administration to go further in releasing border crossers into the U.S. interior without being tested for the coronavirus.

In a letter to Mayorkas, 61 House Democrats requested that DHS end the Center for Disease Control’s Title 42 order that has kept a rush at the border from occurring, according to House Republicans.

The Democrats wrote that the Biden administration ought to be releasing all foreign nationals arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border into the U.S. interior, without testing requirements, so as not to spread the coronavirus in foreign countries.

Thanks to Title 42, nearly 460,000 border crossers have been expelled and deported from the U.S. since March 2020. In the last four months, alone, between 62,000 to 65,000 border crossers have been expelled and deported monthly under Title 42.

As Breitbart News exclusively reported, Biden’s DHS is considering ending Title 42.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here. 

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