Gov. Greg Abbott appeared this week to rebuff help from the federal government to give coronavirus testing to migrants before they are released from federal custody, saying it’s a federal responsibility to screen immigrants coming into Texas.
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The testing in Brownsville was reportedly administered by the city. NBC reported that 6.3% of the migrants tested were confirmed to have the coronavirus. That rate is smaller than the positivity rate statewide, in which an average of 8.3% of tests came back positive over the past seven days. The 108 tests over the past five weeks is a small share of the more than 3,800 confirmed cases in Cameron County reported by the state since Jan. 25.
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After Abbott began upbraiding Biden for releasing the migrants, CNN reported that the Department of Homeland Security had tried to use Federal Emergency Management Agency dollars to help local officials test migrants released from federal custody and isolate them if they test positive. The grant money needed state approval to be allocated, CNN reported.
Abbott seemed to make clear Thursday that he was not interested in the federal offer. He argued in a statement that border security is "strictly a federal responsibility," and thus the Biden administration alone should "test, screen, and quarantine" migrants who may have COVID-19.
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The release of asylum seekers from custody with notices to appear has been a lightning rod issue for Republicans who incorrectly claim that most asylum seekers ignore the notices and instead try to live in the shadows unlawfully. A 2019 study from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, which uses Freedom of Information Act requests to track immigration court cases, found that more than 80% of all migrants show up for their court hearings, and that number increases to nearly 100% if the asylum seekers have representation.
But Abbott said Thursday that Texas "will not aid a program that makes our country a magnet for illegal immigration."