Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas seemingly admitted Thursday that the rate to which border crossers infected with the Chinese coronavirus are arriving in the United States is increasing.
During a press conference in Brownsville, Texas, Mayorkas admitted that federal immigration officials “are seeing an increase in positivity rate among the migrant population” after weeks of the establishment media claiming that coronavirus-positive border crossers have little-to-no impact on the nation’s ongoing surge of cases.
Without revealing specifics on the positivity rate of border crossers, Mayorkas said those arriving at the southern border infected with coronavirus are similar to the rate those testing positive in American communities along the border.
“Our capacity to test, isolate, and quarantine the vulnerable population that makes a legal claim for asylum is stretched,” Mayorkas said. “The rate of positivity among the migrants is at or lower than the rates in our local border communities.”
The admission from Mayorkas comes after David Shahoulian, DHS’s assistant secretary for border and immigration policy, revealed in a court brief last week that the agency has seen “significantly increased rates” of coronavirus-positive border crossers arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, spurring “extremely worrisome” conditions at border facilities.
“The rates at which encountered noncitizens are testing positive for COVID-19 have increased significantly in recent weeks,” Shahoulian wrote. “And although the rate of infection among CBP officers had been declining, this rate recently began increasing again.”
This week, a group of House Republicans threatened Mayorkas with legislative action after they alleged he refused to disclose data on the number of coronavirus-positive border crossers being released by the federal government into American communities.
City officials in McAllen, Texas, revealed that the Biden administration has released more than 7,000 coronavirus-positive border crossers into their communities since February. In the last seven days, alone, the Biden administration released more than 1,500 coronavirus-positive border crossers into McAllen.
The latest data reveals that the Biden administration has released about 173,000 border crossers into the U.S. interior since he took office in late January. In addition, just in the month of July, nearly 15,000 Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) were released to sponsors across the U.S. Another 16,000 UACs remain in federal custody until they are released to sponsors.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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