Abbott rejects Biden proposal for migrant testing at border, says it will create ‘magnet’

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott stated Thursday that he had rejected a Biden administration proposal for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to associate with Texas to check and probably quarantine migrant adults and kids surging throughout the border — amid an issue over the launch of COVID-positive migrants into Texas.

“Instead of doing their job, the Biden Administration suggested it did not have the sufficient resources and, remarkably, asked Texas to assist them in aiding their illegal immigration program. Texas refused,” Abbott stated in a press release. “We will not aid a program that makes our country a magnet for illegal immigration.”

WHITE HOUSE INSISTS COVID-POSITIVE MIGRANTS ARE NOT BEING RELEASED INTO TEXAS, DESPITE ABBOTT CLAIMS

The Washington Post first reported that the administration needs to make use of FEMA in South Texas to check and quarantine households and adults earlier than they’re launched into the inside of the United States.

A spokesperson for Abbott informed Fox News that the administration had proposed a partnership with Texas for testing, screening and quarantining — however that Abbott was not as it was the function of the federal authorities to check these coming into the nation, and he feared it would make Texas a “magnet” for unlawful immigration, as his assertion stated.

108 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS RELEASED BY BORDER PATROL IN TEXAS TEST POSITIVE FOR CORONAVIRUS, OFFICIALS SAY

It comes after Fox News reported Wednesday that 108 migrants in Brownsville, Texas, have examined optimistic for the coronavirus following their arrival — a few of whom had then taken buses to different states.

“The unconscionable act by the Biden Administration of releasing COVID-positive illegal immigrants in our state puts the lives of Texans and Americans at risk. Border security is strictly a federal responsibility,” Abbott stated in his assertion. “The federal government alone has the responsibility to test, screen and quarantine illegal immigrants crossing our border who may have COVID.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki stated earlier Thursday that the Republican governor’s claims are inaccurate. 

“We’re about facts around here; that is not factual,” Psaki stated. 

Describing how migrants are processed amid the coronavirus pandemic, Psaki defended the administration’s insurance policies: “When migrants are placed in alternatives to detention, their COVID-19 testing, our policy, is for COVID-19 testing to be done at the state and local level, and with the help of NGOs and local governments,” she stated.

Psaki added that’s “concluded before they are even moved to stay with family members or others they may know while their cases are being adjudicated.”

Psaki added that the administration’s steerage to anybody, “regardless of status,” testing optimistic for COVID-19 or experiencing COVID-19 signs, is “to social distance, to wear a mask, and to seek medical attention as needed.”

“But in general, our approach and our policy is to work with local governments and NGOs to have testing, to ensure these migrants are tested,” Psaki continued. “And that can take place, and that steps for isolation, quarantine and medical care can be taken should that be needed.”

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The controversy comes after the Biden administration is facing a surge in migrants at the border and has revived the follow of releasing migrants into the inside of the United States — a course of referred to as “catch-and-release” and one which had been ended by the Trump administration. 

Republicans have been grilling the Biden administration on the disaster at the border, with House Judiciary Republicans on Thursday calling for hearings into the “sharp” enhance in unaccompanied youngsters at the border, and what the administration is doing to sort out it.

Fox News’ Griff Jenkins and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.