{"id":24125,"date":"2021-02-08T15:25:47","date_gmt":"2021-02-08T20:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=24125"},"modified":"2021-02-08T15:25:51","modified_gmt":"2021-02-08T20:25:51","slug":"catch-and-release-returns-biden-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2021\/02\/08\/catch-and-release-returns-biden-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"South Texas City Feels Effects of Catch and Release"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
The Biden administration\u2019s return to catch-and-release<\/a> protocols at the border has one South Texas city feeling queasier by the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n McAllen Mayor Jim Darling<\/a> says Border Patrol agents are routinely dropping hundreds of adult migrants traveling with children at a bus station, without screening for COVID-19. The state has sent 10,000 test kits for local\u00a0humanitarian groups to administer. Migrants testing positive are quarantined in hotels; the rest board\u00a0buses for the U.S. interior. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prior to President Joe Biden\u2019s\norder reinstating catch and release, Border Patrol officers in the area\nencountered groups no larger than 50 people. This was due to rapid\nexpulsions<\/a> under COVID-19 travel restrictions and use of Trump-era\nprograms like the Migrant Protection Protocols, safe third-country agreements,\nPrompt Asylum Claim Review and the Humanitarian Asylum Review Process \u2014 all of\nwhich limited the release of migrants into the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that the administration has ditched those programs, Border Patrol is dropping migrants at the bus station, untested. \u201cObviously, that\u2019s very alarming to all of us. That they\u2019re coming from Central America and through Mexico to be released into the United States without being tested for COVID is really unconscionable,\u201d said state Sen. Juan \u201cChuy\u201d Hinojosa<\/a>, D-McAllen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n