The mayor of border city McAllen, Texas, is pleading with President Joe Biden not to end a Trump-era pandemic policy for turning away migrants, warning the White House that “no amount of preparation” can ready them for the expected influx of illegal immigrants.
Mayor Javier Villalobos asked the Biden administration to reconsider ending the public health policy, Title 42, which has allowed the Border Patrol to turn away immediately most people who illegally come across the border between ports of entry. But that policy is set to end on May 23, and homeland security officials in Washington have warned that up to 18,000 people could be encountered in a single day.
“Although our community is giving, well-prepared, and proactive, no amount of preparation will allow for a local government such as the City of McAllen to respond to the dramatic rise in undocumented migration that is anticipated as a direct result of the United States federal government announcing the end of Title 42 effective May 23, 2022,” Villalobos wrote in a letter sent Wednesday.
Villalobos, a Republican elected to office last year, indicated he is most concerned about the effects that mass releases could have on his city’s health and medical care availability. Over the past 12 weeks, as COVID-19 has waned in the U.S., 13.6% of migrants released by the Border Patrol into McAllen have tested positive.
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Although Villalobos did not directly blame migrants for COVID-19 outbreaks in the city, he said the county that the city is located in, Hidalgo County, is trending in the top 3% of the state’s counties for deaths and cases. Of the 254 counties in Texas, Hidalgo County has the sixth-highest number of deaths due to COVID-19 and the seventh-highest number of cases.
“With the BA.2 variant rapidly impacting the northeastern United States such that health and safety protocols are being reconsidered, and reimplemented, a delay in lifting Title 42 affords your administration additional time to mobilize a response to combat the new variant’s threat and protect the health and safety of all Americans,” the mayor wrote. “I implore you to prioritize the health and safety of my community, Texans and all Americans, and to reconsider the administration’s plan to lift Title 42.”
McAllen, a city of 149,000 residents, has seen 100 to 500 migrants released onto its streets daily since last March. Until late last summer, migrants were dropped off by the Border Patrol at a Catholic Charities-run shelter downtown, where they could get tested across the street.
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Last year, McAllen closed down half of the nearby Anzalduas Park to the public and set up tent facilities where migrants discharged from federal custody are tested. Those who test negative are then transported to Catholic Charities, while anyone who tests positive will remain in quarantine.
