A charity in La Joya, Texas, has reportedly rented out an entire hotel just for COVID-positive illegal aliens who’ve recently come across the U.S.-Mexico border – a discovery that local police only made after finding out some of the hotel occupants have been going out and about in town.
According to local outlets, a family was seen at a local Whataburger, clearly sick and not wearing face masks. When police questioned the family, they found out they’d all tested positive for COVID and were staying in a nearby hotel.
Someone waved down police alerting them that there was a family coughing, sneezing and not wearing masks, according to police. Police also said the family told them they were recently released by Border Patrol.
According to police, the family told authorities they’d just come across the river and been released by border patrol before handing over a I-385 Form, which instructs illegal aliens who’ve been released without a court date to self-report to Immigration and Customs Enforcement within 60 days of reaching their destination within the United States.
The family then told police that after being released, they’d been directed by border agents to Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, who then placed them in a local Texas Inn and Suites. Police soon discovered that the entire hotel had been rented out for more than 80 illegal aliens who’d been released by border patrol and were trying to make it to elsewhere in the country.
On top of that, La Joya police Sgt. Manuel Casas said the charity had booked the entire hotel specifically to house COVID-positive migrants without giving any notice to local authorities or health officials., reports Fox News.
"We have an understanding based on what was told to us that the hotel in totality has already been rented out," Casas said. "The information we have is that everyone that is staying in that hotel is COVID-19 positive because it's being rented out for them."
“And it was verified that they were staying there and not only that but there were other family units that had the same form,” said Casas. “We did not know this, no one told the city of La Joya, no one told the police department.”
Now, naturally, local residents and officials are upset after having learned that dozens of illegal aliens – including COVID-infected ones – are being allowed into the country, summarily released, and turned loose into their neighborhoods only to head to the local burger joint and cough all over everyone else.
“We have been doing well as a community in slowing the spread of this deadly virus,”Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez said in a statement to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, urging him to re-allow localities to put certain COVID measures in place if infected migrants are to be allowed in without proper testing and quarantine periods.
“Ill-conceived policies by both the federal and state governments are beginning to have serious consequences on Hidalgo County. I call on federal immigration officials to stop releasing infected migrants into our community and I am further calling on Governor Abbott to return to Hidalgo County the safety tools he took away that would help us slow the spread of this disease,” he said.
“We now face a potential crisis because of the federal policy of releasing infected migrants into our community, coupled with the state policy that prohibits us from implementing essential safety measures,” Cortez continued. “This is unacceptable.”