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White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended the Biden administration’s decision not to require coronavirus vaccines or negative COVID-19 tests for people crossing the border illegally seeking asylum , claiming that they “did not intend to stay here for a long time.”
In recent days, thousands of migrants from Haiti and other countries have invaded the southern border seeking permanent asylum in the United States. Many reached a processing bottleneck in Del Rio, Texas last week, leaving more than 12,000 migrants camping under a bridge, sparking concerns over coronaviruses and security threats among local and state leaders .
At Monday’s daily press conference, Psaki was pressed to find out why there are so many steps regarding COVID-19 during a flight around the country, such as providing proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test. , but apparently none for those crossing the border.
“As individuals cross the border, they are both assessed to determine if they have symptoms, if they have symptoms, they are,” Psaki said.
“The intention is that they will be quarantined. It’s our process, they don’t plan to stay here long, I don’t think it’s the same. It’s not the same thing.”
“We are deporting individuals on the basis of Title 42 specifically because of COVID because we want to avoid that a scenario where a large number of people gather together poses a threat to the community and also to the migrants themselves,” said she added.
The lack of vaccine requirements for illegal migrants is not new, as on September 10, Psaki confirmed that the government would not require them, despite President Biden’s order requiring that around two-thirds of American workers are vaccinated. At the time, she did not explain why migrants would not be subject to the same rules as American workers.
His claim that migrants at the border do not seek to stay in the United States for long stems from the fact that more than 12,000 camped in Del Rio over the weekend waiting for asylum claims to be processed and hundreds more are traveling.
Haitians in particular have migrated to the United States in large numbers from South America for several years, many of them having left the Caribbean nation after a devastating earthquake in 2010.
The United States has seen historic numbers of people cross the southern border illegally this year, as border officials have arrested more than 1,323,500 illegal immigrants so far.
Authorities last week confirmed meeting 208,887 migrants at the southwestern border in August, marking the first time that more than 200,000 encounters with illegal immigrants have been recorded in consecutive months since February and March 2000 ( 211,328 and 220,063, respectively).
The Biden administration attempted to mitigate the influx with deportation flights authorized under the CDC’s Title 42 order, successfully deporting nearly a million people. However, last week U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled that the United States can no longer cite the order to deport migrant families. The ordinance does not apply to single migrants and the Department of Homeland Security says the majority of migrants are still deported under the Title 42 ordinance.
Border patrol chief Raul L. Ortiz revealed on Sunday that 3,300 migrants had been moved from the camp to deportation flights or detention centers. Border patrol officials aim to process the some 12,600 migrants left under the bridge during the week.
The first of three eviction flights, carrying 145 people each, took off from San Antonio on Sunday for Port-au-Prince. A US official told The Associated Press there could be as many as eight thefts a day.
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