Thousands of COVID-positive Migrants Were Not Released Into The US

Misbar’s investigation found this claim to be misleading. 

On March 3rd, the New York Post and Fox News reported that 108 illegal immigrants in Texas who tested positive for COVID were released by Border Patrol. The tweet by Ryan Fournier is likely a response to this report, as there is no other news of COVID-positive migrants being released into the United States.

However, these news articles fail to point out the order in which the events occurred. The migrants were released by the Border Patrol and then later tested positive for COVID-19. According to Yahoo News and NBC News, the immigrants were tested at the Brownsville bus station in Texas hours after being released by the Border Patrol. 

The Brownsville bus station began doing rapid tests for COVID-19 on Jan. 25th, and 108 people have tested positive since then. According to a report released by the Department of Homeland Security in September 2020, zero of the 136 Border Patrol Stations and Ports of Entry had COVID-19 testing kits. Only 2.2% of the facilities “have the capacity to test detained individuals for COVID-19 on site.”

The current protocol for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is to screen individuals for COVID-19 symptoms when they are initially processed at a facility and to continue monitoring them for potential COVID-19 symptoms for as long as they remain in CBP custody.

This claim is misleading because it insinuates that CBP knowingly released thousands of COVID-positive immigrants into the US.