Mayorkas admits “tragic rise” of delta variant to US-Mexico border “surprised” him



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Internal security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas admitted on Monday that the wave of the delta variant of COVID-19 at the border had taken him by surprise.

Speaking virtually at the 18th Annual Immigration Law and Policy Conference at Georgetown University, Mayorkas said: “What I didn’t expect is the tragic rise of the delta variant. And we took a step back for this reason. I didn’t expect to be where we are at the end of September. “

“We are faced with a population of people who, in general, have a disease rate of around 20%,” he continued. “When we talk about 7,000 or 7,500 people we meet at the border every day, if we look at the system, it is not built for that in a COVID environment where isolation is a must.”

Mayorkas’ comments came a day after he told “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace that about 12,000 Haitians migrants were released in the United States amid the border wave in recent weeks.

“Roughly, I think it’s about 10,000 or so, 12,000,” Mayorkas said of the number of people released. He also said that number could increase after the treatment of 5,000 more cases.

“It could be even higher. The number of returns could be even higher. What we are doing is following the law as Congress passed it,” he added.

MAYORKAS SAYS 12K OVER 17K MIGRANTS HAVE BEEN RELEASED IN US, AND “IT COULD BE HIGHER”

Former President Trump issued a statement on Sunday denouncing the Biden administration for releasing the migrants, saying they were doing so “without scrutiny, verification or even a minimal understanding of who they are.”

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“Some are very sick with extremely contagious diseases, even worse than the Chinese virus. They are not masked or mandated, but are simply left free to roam our whole country and affect what was just ago. a year, a great nation, ”Trump said. .

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