DHS not testing migrants for COVID-19, must strengthen 'preventative measures': OIG report
"If it doesn't, DHS is putting its workforce, support staff, communities, and migrants at greater risk for contracting the virus," warns new report from department's internal watchdog.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) "does not conduct COVID-19 testing for migrants who enter CBP custody and is not required to do so," a new report published by the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security found. "Instead, CBP relies on local public health systems to test symptomatic individuals."
"DHS' multi-layered COVID-19 testing framework does not require CBP to conduct COVID-19 testing at CBP facilities," according to the IG report. "Further, DHS' Chief Medical Officer does not have the authority to direct or enforce COVID-19 testing procedures. Currently, only the Secretary, Deputy Secretary, and CBP leadership can direct CBP to implement COVID-19 measures."
Released Sept. 14, the report arrives just days after President Joe Biden announced the federal government would require COVID-19 vaccinations for over 80 million private employees as a condition of their employment.
In one month, between March and April of this year, in eight of nine border patrol sectors (two in Arizona, two in California and four in Texas), 157 CBP employees and contractors tested positive for COVID-19, the IG's office found in its analysis conducted between March 2021 and May 2021.
"DHS leadership must commit to strengthening the preventative measures," like testing, isolation and contact tracing of RIMs," the IG report concludes. "If it doesn't, DHS is putting its workforce, support staff, communities, and migrants at greater risk for contracting the virus."The inspector general recommends that DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas reassess DHS's COVID-19 response and provide resources needed to operate safely and effectively.
DHS concurred with both recommendations in its official response.
"Although resource constraints may present a complex and challenging operating environment," DHS said it "will continue to implement improvement actions based on active monitoring and impact analysis of mitigation efforts" to be completed by Sept. 30, 2022.
Since its earliest days in power, the Biden administration has been relaxing federal border enforcement policies. Within months of the abrupt abandonment of Trump-era controls, Texas border communities that had reportedly gotten the coronavirus under control were sounding the alarm over the virus surging in direct correlation to a sudden flood of illegal immigration.
In August, the city of McAllen, Texas, set up a temporary emergency shelter to respond to the overwhelming increase of refugees, immigrants and migrants (RIMs). In a statement, the city said that since mid-February 2021, there were over 7,000 confirmed COVID-19 positive RIMs released into McAllen by CBP, including over 1,500 new cases within the span of a single week.
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/coronavirus/weddhs-not-testing-migrants-covid-19-must-strengthen-preventative