White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said he does not 'have an easy answer' to testing migrants who enter at t...
White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said he does not 'have an easy answer' to testing migrants who enter at the southern border, many of whom are infected with Covid-19.
'We have about 18 percent of the migrant families here, 20 percent of the unaccompanied minors, testing positive for Covid,' Fox News' Neil Cavuto claimed to Fauci on Friday. 'What do we do about that?'
'You know, Neil, I — I don't have an easy answer for that,' Fauci replied. 'I mean, obviously, Title 42 is still operable at the border trying to keep people who should not come in into the country. There is testing that is done. I'm certain it's not as extensive as we would like to see, but I have to admit, Neil, I don't have an easy answer. That — that's a very difficult problem.'
The Biden administration has tightened protocols for international travelers who come to the US legally in the face of the Omicron variant, but has not come up with a testing plan for the hundreds of thousands of migrants who arrive at the border each month.
Every traveler entering the country must be tested for Covid-19 within one day of their flight.
Fauci later admitted that the Omicron variant was likely to spread rapidly across the US 'no matter what you do to keep people out.'
Cavuto asked the chief medical advisor if coronavirus coming in through the border 'would dwarf whatever good we're trying to do at airports.'
'You know what I think is going to happen that is possibly going to make this a moot point?' he said. 'I think, give what we know about the transmissibility and likely transmissibility of Omicron … once it gets in there, it will likely, under the radar, be spreading no matter what you do to keep people out or not.'
Fauci later admitted that the Omicron variant was likely to spread rapidly across the US 'no matter what you do to keep people out'
Fauci's appearance on Fox News came a day after Politico reported he had almost entirely stopped appearing on the network since July.
Bret Baier and Cavuto had reportedly been trying to book the infectious disease expert for months but he continuously turned them down.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) does not have the resources to test migrants who enter their custody and relies on public health systems in surrounding towns to do so.
Meawhile, the Biden administration was forced to comply with a court order this week in reimplementing the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), which requires asylum-seekers who made it to the border by way of Mexico to remain in the country as they await U.S. court proceedings related to their claim.
The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General reviewed DHS' protocols at migrant facilities after being tipped off by a DHS employee complaint about the lack of Covid-19 testing.
Several officials interviewed by the watchdog said that migrants are constantly reminded of the Covid-19 risk but often do not social distance or wear masks, and even the testing process for families post-CBP custody is not effective because municipalities cannot force families to isolate for the quarantine period.
Migrants and asylum seekers hold signs as they protest against the reinstatement of the Migrant Protection Protocols, or the 'Remain in Mexico' program
Haitians rest at the Alfa y Omega migrant shelter as the U.S. is restarting a Trump-era border program forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico
The officials also said that a breakdown in authority under Title 42, the coronavirus health order that allows DHS to turn away migrants, has 'increased risk' of CBP personnel, migrants in custody and local communities.
The White House has claimed that migrants coming across at the border and international travelers are 'not the same thing' because migrants do not intend 'to stay here for a lengthy period of time.'
'As individuals come across the border, and they are both assessed for whether they have any symptoms, if they have symptoms they are,' White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at the time.
'The intention is for them to be quarantined,' she added. 'That is our process, they're not intending to stay here for a lengthy period of time. I don't think it's the same thing. It's not the same thing.'
After a record 2021 fiscal year for border crossings, border agents have reported fewer encounters with migrants detained for unlawfully crossing the United States-Mexico border for the third consecutive month, according to report released Monday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Data showed there were 164,303 interdictions reported in October, a 14 percent decrease compared to September. U.S. Border Patrol registered 192,001 encounters in September and 209,840 in August after a record-high 213,593 interdictions were reported in July, the peak of the southern border crisis facing the Biden administration.
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