A prominent family medicine doctor based in a Texas border city made a plea to the Biden administration this week to halt all border activity as his community grapples with a troubling influx of infectious-disease cases.
Many in mainstream media claim the surge in COVID cases across the country can’t be tied to the southern border. A Washington Post analysis claimed we can be “confident that the surge in coronavirus cases isn’t the fault of immigrants,” and an opinion piece written by AIM Media’s Texas Editorial Board claimed it would be “unreasonable to cast any blame toward the migrants with regard to the new surge in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths.”
An MSNBC opinion columnist similarly declared that the surge of COVID in Texas “isn’t due to immigrants.”
But, as the rate of COVID-positive migrants continues to soar at the U.S. southern border, health care providers in neighboring towns are growing increasingly alarmed over the welfare of their residents.
Dr. Antonio Falcon, a highly regarded physician in the border town of Rio Grande City, Texas told Fox News that his practice has seen a significant “uptick in cases in the last couple of weeks.” Falcon’s region reported a 900% increase in the number of illegal detainees who tested positive for COVID-19 last month.
Coincidence? He thinks not.
TEXAS BORDER CITY SAYS MORE THAN 7,000 COVID POSITIVE MIGRANTS RELEASED
“The uptick in cases locally is certainly linked to the number of those coming across the border who have already contracted the virus,” Falcon said.
The Texas border city of McAllen, just 30 miles south of Rio Grande, reported that more than 7,000 COVID-positive migrants have been released into the city since February, and more than 1,500 in the past week.
Immigrants released by Customs and Border Protection are dropped off with Catholic Charities and tested for COVID by a third party. If they test positive, they are asked to quarantine and are offered a room at a quarantine site. Due to poor containment efforts, migrants who were infected reportedly traveled to local communities without the knowledge of local law enforcement or medical providers.
“That is absolutely not the way to handle such an infectious disease of this scope, especially one that’s so easily transmittable with the new variant,” Falcon said.
Law enforcement in La Joya, Texas, reportedly confronted a migrant family at a local restaurant that was “coughing and sneezing without covering their mouths and were not wearing face masks,” the La Joya Police Department wrote. After employees at the establishment asked the group to leave, an officer made contact with the family. The family explained afterward that they were apprehended by Border Patrol but quickly released, even though agents knew they had COVID-19. Local authorities in the Rio Grande Valley were not notified, they said.
“In this cloud of COVID, we also have other infectious diseases that we have to be concerned about, and nobody’s talking about it.”
— Dr. Antonio Falcon
Chris Cabrera, a vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, said recently on “Fox News Live” that agents are having to release COVID-positive migrants into the U.S. “day in, day out,” leaving Border Patrol agents worried for their health.
“We’re releasing people out of the door day in and day out with actual positive tests for COVID and more keep popping up,” he said. As a result, Cabrera warned that a number of agents have been quarantined or are sick with the virus.
“It’s grossly irresponsible for anyone…to allow somebody with COVID into the community knowing good and well the situation that we’re living under right now,” Falcon responded.
COVID CASES IN RIO GRANDE VALLEY SECTOR SURGE BY 900%
Asked whether he recommends that the administration take on more aggressive measures to sequester COVID-positive migrants, Falcon answered plainly, “I would recommend that they do not allow them to cross unless it’s done legally, and in the way that we already have laws that dictate the immigration processes.”
If surging COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations in the Rio Grande Valley aren’t enough to propel immediate action, Falcon said he hoped DHS authorities will heed his warnings about another lesser-known disease that is making its way across the border from Central America.
“In this cloud of COVID, we also have other infectious diseases that we have to be concerned about, and nobody’s talking about it,” he told Fox News.
“If you do a little research, you’ll find that one of the hotspots for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is Central America,” Falcon said.
“The same individuals that are bringing COVID across are potentially bringing across very dangerous infections into our community, like multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, and that’s only one of several other things that can come up from Central America. There’s absolutely no control…right now,” he said, “and it’s just grossly irresponsible to our community.”
When asked for comment about the concern of COVID-positive migrants entering the United States, the Department of Homeland Security responded via a CBP spokesperson.
“CBP provides migrants with PPE from the moment they are taken into custody, and migrants are required to keep masks on at all times, including when they are transferred or in the process of being released,” the statement read.
“If anyone exhibits signs of illness in CBP custody, they are referred to local health systems for appropriate testing, diagnosis, and treatment. CBP takes its responsibility to prevent the spread of communicable diseases very seriously. We value our partners in local communities whose work is critical to moving individuals safely out of CBP/USBP custody and through the appropriate immigration pathway.”
