'Inaction is simply not an option': Border Democrat warns Biden of crisis from surge in migrants amid pandemic

A top House Democrat who represents a southern border district said the United States might be a matter of days away from a disaster if current migration rates continue and the Biden administration does not take immediate action.

“We are weeks, maybe even days, away from a crisis on the southern border. Inaction is simply not an option,” said Rep. Henry Cuellar, a centrist Democrat whose Texas district runs along 200 miles of the border in the Rio Grande Valley and Laredo. “Our country is currently unprepared to handle a surge in migrants in the middle of the pandemic. Migrants are illegally crossing, potentially exposing border communities to the coronavirus and putting us at risk."

Border Patrol, the federal law enforcement office that arrests migrants who illegally cross the border between ports of entry, is not testing or vaccinating the thousands of people it is encountering. Just this week, Cuellar revealed that 108 people who had been released by Border Patrol in nearby Brownsville, Texas, tested positive for the coronavirus. They were tested by local nonprofi... (Read more)

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