President Joe Biden’s progressive deputies are inviting migrants with the coronavirus through the nation’s borders, so helping to spread the epidemic and boosting healthcare costs, says a statement from five of President Donald Trump’s border-agency leaders.

“The Biden administration is actively importing coronavirus cases into our country as Americans work to get back on their feet,” said the five leaders who are now working at the Heritage Foundation.

“Our leaders should be focused on re-opening our businesses and schools in a way that protects American lives and livelihoods [but] the Biden administration is prioritizing illegal aliens entering the country over the safety and welfare of American citizens,” said the former officials.

The officials are Chad Wolf, the former acting secretary at the Department of Homeland Security; Ken Cuccinelli, the former acting assistant secretary at DHS; and Mark Morgan, the acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency. They were joined by James Carafano, a former DHS advisor, and Lora Ries, a former chief of staff at the agency.

Their statement continued:

A recent report found that illegal aliens released into the country subsequently tested positive for COVID-19 after their release. Make no mistake: this will not be the last time.

Through its misguided and deliberate actions, the Biden administration is actively importing coronavirus cases into our country as Americans work to get back on their feet. For the past year, we have been prevented from going to school, to work or to our places of worship. We have been told we risk fines or jail time if we gather with friends. But illegal aliens are immediately given access to our country and its many benefits, even though we know many are carrying the virus. These imported cases will reverse the trend of falling infections and hospitalizations, and put further strain on our health system. And of course, American taxpayers will foot the bill for illegal aliens’ care.

The reinstatement of ‘catch and release,’ in which illegal aliens are detained and then quickly released into the country to await their court hearing – which most do not show up for – is not only bad immigration policy, but disastrous public health policy.” On Monday, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas misled the American people when he denied the obvious security crisis at the border. Now we know the administration has a public health crisis on its hands, as well.

A March 2 report by NBC News on Tuesday confirmed that border crossers are testing positive for the coronavirus after being released by DHS officials into the U.S. interior:

Miriam Izaguirre, a 35-year-old asylum-seeker from Honduras, crossed the Rio Grande at dawn Monday with her young son and turned herself in to the authorities.

A few hours later she was released, and the first thing she did was take a rapid test for Covid-19 at the Brownsville bus station. They told her her test came out positive.

…

Several of the asylum-seekers who tested positive told Noticias Telemundo Investiga they were planning to leave Brownsville for their destinations; one of them bought a bus ticket for the journey. Eva Orellana, 29, who is from Honduras and who tested positive, said she was going to take the bus to North Carolina with her 3-year-old daughter. “On the way, we were wearing a mask all the time, gel, washing our hands,” she said. “Really, I don’t feel anything.”

The New York Post reported March 3:

Felipe Romero, a spokesman for the border city of Brownsville, told Fox News that they are telling the migrants who tested positive to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to quarantine and maintain social distance, but that Brownsville doesn’t have the authority to stop them from traveling to the rest of the country.

He said the 108 positives account for 6.3 percent of the total migrants who received rapid tests at the city’s main bus terminal, a program that began on Jan. 25.

The Heritage statement said:

“There is no such thing as ‘safe illegal immigration,’ especially during a pandemic. The president ran a campaign based on ‘listening to the health experts,’ but no doubt the American people would like to know which public health experts recommended this horrendous policy.”