Texas Border Communities Seek Federal Moratorium on Migrant Releases

Texas border community leaders are set to meet with Biden Administration officials and will reportedly ask for a moratorium on releasing additional migrants from federal custody.

DHS Secretary Mayorkas is visiting ground zero for the current migrant crisis along the Texas border with Mexico — the Rio Grande Valley Sector. While, once again, no press or media is being allowed during the secretary’s visit, Mayorkas will meet with the mostly Democrat members of the Texas Border Coalition, Concho Valley Homepage reports.

Laredo Mayor Pete Saenz told Border Report the group intends to ask Mayorkas for a total “moratorium on migrant releases … To send resources to deal with this mess and to sort it out and to better manage them,” Saenz told the news outlet.

Prior to the meeting with the DHS secretary, the Texas Border Coalition members met online to prepare requests from the federal government. Those requests include:

• To stop releasing migrant families due to the surge in coronavirus cases on the border.
• More resources for Border Patrol and law enforcement.
• A reopening of land ports to non-essential tourists with proper documentation and visas to stimulate trade and commerce in the region.

The mayor expressed concern about the growing number of migrants testing positive for COVID-19 after they are released into communities by Border Patrol. He said the migrant families in the Rio Grande Valley testing positive for COVID jumped to 16 percent on Wednesday.

He added that migrants being bused to Laredo from the Rio Grande Valley are testing positive at a rate of 35 to 40 percent.

Mayor Saenz recently entered into an agreement with DHS to stop a lawsuit over the release of migrants into the Laredo border community. The agreement allows the City of Laredo to take released migrants and bus them to major cities across Texas, Breitbart Texas reported on Wednesday. The migrants will not be tested for the Coronavirus until they reach their destination.

“The reason why we don’t do testing is that once you test, there’s an obligation,” Saenz explained. “If they’re positive, we’re told that you have to quarantine. We don’t have the infrastructure for that.”

“I know some people may say, ‘you’re basically transporting untested people to other cities.’ And the answer is ‘yes,’ the border mayor concluded, “But what alternative do we have here, locally?”

In a statement to Breitbart Texas, Governor Greg Abbott’s Press Secretary Renae Eze responded to this, saying, “With a 20-year record-high influx of migrants crossing, this months long border crisis continues to grow out of hand as President Biden refuses to do his job and uphold our nation’s sovereignty.”

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.