A police department in Texas said migrants with COVID-19 were being dumped in its small border town after being apprehended by Border Patrol.
Law enforcement in La Joya, Texas, showed up on Monday to a Whataburger restaurant after a concerned citizen reported a family 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 requested the group to leave, an officer made contact with the family. The family explained afterward that they were nabbed by Border Patrol but quickly released after agents found they had COVID-19.
Police said they later learned that border authorities passed the migrants, many of whom were COVID-19-positive, to Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, which contracted all the rooms in the Texas Inn. Officers found 20 to 30 suspected illegal immigrants were staying at the hotel. The majority were not wearing face masks, officers observed.
50,000 MIGRANTS RELEASED INTO US WITHOUT COURT DATE
La Joya law enforcement, which has been assisting Border Patrol for the past few months, said the migrant transports were also occurring in McAllen, Texas, and Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley did not notify officers before engaging in the practice.
**NEW**: After an incident at a Whataburger, police in La Joya, TX say they’ve learned illegal immigrants who test positive for COVID-19 are being released from federal custody to a local Catholic charity in the RGV which then places them in local hotels without notice. @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/cOx4yR5Wiw
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) July 27, 2021
“We want to inform the public about the current situation we have encountered and ask that the citizens of La Joya to exercise social distancing measures and that they please use face masks in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 or its variants,” the department said.
President Joe Biden has faced intense scrutiny for his administration’s handling of the southern border situation as attempted illegal crossings surge.
Roughly 50,000 migrants have been released into the United States without mandatory court dates as record numbers of illegal crossers continue to overwhelm authorities, according to an Axios report this week. The unprecedented routine, which began after Biden took office, mandates migrants to visit with Immigration and Customs Enforcement instead of being ordered to appear before a judge.
La Joya police said the situation in the Lone Star State and elsewhere has shown no signs of “slowing down.”
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“La Joya Police Department has been assisting Border Patrol in the apprehension of hundreds of people crossing through the cities jurisdiction, and the flow of undocumented immigrants does not show any signs of slowing down,” the department said.
A spokesperson for Border Patrol did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.
