COVID infections in the United States have surged in the last few weeks. The biggest danger to Americans Public Health right now seems to be unvaccinated illegal immigrants being transported across the country by our own government. Biden’s administration is allowing people to come in illegally without being vaccinated or even tested, in some cases. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement data, more than 80 percent of illegal immigrants coming in are unvaccinated. Countries such as Brazil and Peru that have high infection rates and dangerous variants. The vaccination rates in Honduras and Guatemala are less than 1 percent. A majority of people entering the country illegally are from these countries, while it is understandable to want to leave these countries ravaged by disease and war-like conflict, they have to do things the right way. Everything has to be done correctly because during a one-week period in California, 15 percent of illegal immigrants released into the community by Border Patrol were found to have COVID. 7,000 illegal immigrants who tested positive for COVID recently passed through a Texas city that has become the epicenter of coming to the U.S. illegally. Many Republicans have openly expressed their opinions on Biden’s “Border Control.”
What Do Republicans Think?
Sean Hannity believes the border is the “biggest super-spreader” of the pandemic. Chip Roy went even further, calling for Biden’s impeachment over the border issue. “Here we are saying, ‘Oh, we’re going to have to wear masks on the floor of the House, but we’re going to do nothing to stop the flow of people coming across our border,’” he complained to Tucker Carlson. Senator Ted Cruz has also attributed the surges in COVID cases to the surge in illegal immigration. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told Biden, “Why don’t you do your job? Why don’t you get this border secure? And until you do that, I don’t want to hear a blip about Covid from you, thank you.”
“No elected official is doing more to enable the transmission of COVID in America than Joe Biden with his open borders policies,” DeSantis said in a fundraising email that went out after a press conference. Governor Kim Reynolds told reporters, immigration at the southern border is “part of the problem” as COVID cases rise again through the U.S. and Iowa. “As they’re trying to impact additional restrictions on Americans, we’ve got people coming across the border that haven’t been vaccinated, and so that’s also something we need to continue to look at,” Reynolds said. Texas governor Greg Abbott has blamed the immigration surge for an increase in COVID cases and hospitalizations in the state.
What is Happening in Texas?
Crowded immigration detainment facilities experience COVID outbreaks regularly but only about 1 in 5 detained illegal immigrants receive at least one dose of the vaccine while in custody, according to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement data from May. That’s if they are even tested, most illegal immigrants go untested. After they are processed they are sent on buses to major cities in the U.S.. Border counties in Texas have called for U.S. immigration officials to stop bringing in migrants who have tested positive for COVID. It is clear to Texas officials how lack of testing and vaccinations at the border affect the spread of COVID nationally, and in their own backyards. The City of McAllen, Texas recently announced the construction of temporary emergency shelters to help the city of 140,000 cope with the flow of illegal immigrants that has overwhelmed existing facilities. The city said, “in the last several weeks, due to the shockingly large number of immigrants released by Customs and Border Protection, the Respite Center’s capacity became overwhelmed.” The Respite Center admitted an average of 750 illegal immigrants per day at the beginning of July.
“That number, over the course of the month, escalated to over 1,100 people per day, and so far in August has surged to over 1,900 people per day,” the city said. “The Respite Center has capacity for only 1,236 occupants and will not allow more than its maximum occupancy at any given time.” Officials in McAllen and Hidalgo County declared a local state of disaster due to rising numbers of COVID cases and limited capacity in holding facilities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stepped in and renewed Title 42 protocol, giving federal authorities clearance to expel single adults and certain families at the border in order to prevent the spread of the virus.“Title 42 is not an immigration authority, but a public health authority, and its continued use is dictated by CDC and governed by the CDC’s analysis of public health factors,” the Department of Homeland Security said. “Under Title 42, DHS continues to expel the majority of single adults, and, to the extent possible, families encountered at the Southwest Border.”
Illegal immigrants can bring COVID from their home country, pick it up on the way, or catch it in crowded border detention facilities. Even if they test negative, they have been HEAVILY exposed to COVID, which means they pose a greater threat to public health than most individuals. If many illegal immigrants are not being tested, how many times are the ones who are? They could easily test negative once and begin to show symptoms a week later like many people who have contracted COVID here in the U.S.. The left wants to believe the surge is because of unvaccinated Americans but fail to acknowledge the COVID pandemic was just beginning to be under semi-control. Now, there is a surge of people coming in, also coincidentally a recent surge in cases, but neither is related? The only logical answer is to close the border down. If we have a surge in cases, the responsible thing to do as a country is to shut down so we keep everyone safe from COVID.
Written by: Erinn Malloy
