The situation on our southern border has become about as foggy as the brains of certain politicians.
On the one hand, we’re told a 100-day moratorium on deportations began on Inauguration Day, January 20. But then there was a court decision that temporarily postponed the moratorium for two weeks, and following that, we were told Border Patrol and Homeland Security officials were continuing to enforce the CDC’s Title 42 Coronavirus protection protocols. That policy, a Covid health measure, requires illegal migrants apprehended on the U.S. side to be immediately removed to Mexico.
So far so good. But now we’re hearing that removals and deportations have indeed been canceled, and the Obama-era “catch and release” policy has returned.
The BorderReport website yesterday published an article entitled “‘Catch and release’ resumes in South Texas, mayor says; Biden order reinstates policy.” The article quotes McAllen Mayor Jim Darling, who on Tuesday said city officials had met last week with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials. The CBP indicated that family units are now being “paroled into the United States” as they await their asylum proceedings–a reversal of the “remain in Mexico” protocols instituted by President Trump.
What’s more–and what is potentially even more alarming–it seems the CDC Title 42 protocols are largely being ignored as well. BorderReport says:
Darling and others who help migrants in South Texas say they expect to see many more migrants in need of assistance very soon, and there are concerns that not all are being tested for COVID-19 before they travel elsewhere in the United States.
The city of McAllen, according to Mayor Darling, has had to insinuate itself into the new system to provide whatever degree of health and safety it can. A few days ago, city officials suddenly noticed that Border Patrol agents had begun dropping newly processed illegals off at the local bus station, where they were free to book passage anywhere in the country. Given that most appeared not to have been tested for Covid and realizing the health risk that entailed, the city was able to quickly secure 10,000 Covid test kits from the state. They then began to usher newly delivered migrants from the bus station to the Rio Grande Valley’s Humanitarian Respite Center across the street, where the migrants receive a Covid-19 test, as well as food, clothing, and a chance to rest before traveling.
Migrants testing negative are then free to head back to the bus station and pursue their fortunes from there. Those testing positive are being put up in local hotels to theoretically quarantine before resuming their travels.
Beginning around January 28, the Respite Center started experiencing an uptick in migrants coming through. A total of 57 migrants came to the center that day; on Monday, the next day, 80 showed up. On Wednesday, 60 migrants appeared together, the biggest single group yet. A total of more than 400 migrants had been received as of the report’s publication date. Many more are expected in the coming days and weeks.
State Senator Juan Hinojosa, a Democrat from McAllen who helped obtain the test kits, says the new Biden policy was adopted too quickly for local border communities like McAllen to respond. He says the situation is likely to worsen as news spreads south of the return of catch and release. He told BorderReport:
We checked into it and found out [the migrants] were just being released to the bus station so they could travel to the interior of the United States with documents saying that would get them through the checkpoint. As the Biden administration starts to change policies word of this will get down to South America and Central America and we’ll see an increase of families coming to try to cross the river.
They will then be welcomed to Bidenworld, where Reason reigns supreme.
For more, see BorderReport.