The Biden administration today acknowledges that it is not itself testing, quarantining, or treating illegal migrants entering the country via the country’s southern border. Instead, any immigrant who exhibits signs of COVID-19 are instead being released and “referred to local health systems”.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki did not say what, if any public health oversight is conducted once the migrants leave federal custody or if the migrants are required to seek treatment at all once released.
When asked if migrants were being released before being tested in large numbers, Psaki said the process does not require it.
“Let me give you a little bit of an understanding of what actually happens when people come across the border,” Psaki said. “CBP provides migrants with PPE from the moment they are taken into custody and migrants are required to keep masks on at all times including when they are transferred or in the process of being released.
Psaki said the federal government’s protocol is to release the migrants into the local community to see private personal health care.
“Our other protocol is if anyone exhibits signs of illness in, CBP custody they’re referred to local health systems for appropriate testing diagnosis isolation and treatment that is our process,” Psaki said.