McAllen, TX – On Monday McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos declared his city a disaster area and issued a formal federal declaration of disaster with the federal government after the Biden administration released 1,500 COVID-19 infected migrants in the city over a 7 day period.
The White House today confirmed the McAllen mayor’s claim. The mayor says that the U.S. Border Patrol has been releasing thousands of COVID-19 positive migrants into his city and is not reimbursing the city for the financial and medical costs being burdened by the city since the Biden administration took office.
The mayor said being on the front lines of Biden’s Border Crisis should not be his city’s problem and immigration policy is not a municipal issue.
“Immigration is not a municipal issue and shouldn’t be OUR issue,” he said. “The tremendous increase in the influx of immigrants has brought us to a breaking point. Even though immigration is not our responsibility, the City of McAllen has done what was necessary to keep both the immigrants and our community safe. To date, we have succeeded. However, the increase in the number of immigrants crossing, the increase in positivity rate of COVID within the immigrants, and the Governor’s order restricting travel assistance, have multiplied our city’s problems.”
According to Yahoo News, “Last week, a record-high 7,000 migrants were released in downtown McAllen, where they were immediately tested for the coronavirus through a city contractor. More than 1,500 people tested positive over the past seven days, according to a city document issued Wednesday, compared to a total of 7,000 confirmed cases over the past five months. Those who test positive are told to quarantine for two days but are ultimately released into the public.”
“The goal is to put us in a position to make a claim with the fed government to the situation that we have here in Hidalgo County dealing with these immigrants,” Cortez said. “We have an overflow where it’s difficult to manage. They’re going into the streets of our communities some of which may not have been tested correctly or not taken the appropriate steps to put them in an isolated situation.”
Many of McAllen’s immigrants are seeking shelter at the Catholic Charities shelter for years, but now, they can’t handle the influx or the increasing amount of COVID-19 positive migrants.
“Today I signed a Disaster Declaration because of what we are now facing, something we did not face just two weeks ago. We ask for your prayers. God help McAllen,” the mayor said.
The Biden administration once again dodged and weaved around the issue, but recognized the disaster declaration and once again repeated the canned response that all immigrants are provided PPE upon arrival, but did not say offer any plan to stop the wave of infected migrants from crossing the border.
