CNN host Brianna Keilar claimed during Monday morning’s episode of New Day that conservatives have “no facts” to back up their claims that migrants are spreading COVID-19 at the border.
Keilar admitted that there is a crisis at the border, but played clips of conservative leaders talking about it and claimed they were “capitalizing” on the issue.
The clips included Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz saying that most of the illegal immigrants crossing the border have not been vaccinated and are in cages with coronavirus-positive migrants, Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy demanding the enforcement of Title 42 and Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis demanding that President Joe Biden secure the border to help get the pandemic under control. (RELATED: Biden’s Immigration Plan Manages To Upset Just About Everyone)
Keilar cited a quote in the Washington Post from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) where the group claimed there was “widespread testing” of migrants crossing the border.
President Biden has a border crisis on his hands – no doubt.
But conservatives are capitalizing on it by demonizing immigrants as diseased spreaders of covid – with no facts to back that up. #RollTheTape pic.twitter.com/nmUsbdM5i9
— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) August 9, 2021
“That claim is not based in fact,” she said, referring to DeSantis saying that hundreds of thousands of migrants are crossing the border and being spread out across the country. “There is no proof of same large-scale importation of Covid-sickened migrants in Florida that could be blamed for the terrible infection numbers in DeSantis’ state.”
“And as we noted, hundreds of thousands of immigrants are being expelled,” she added.
Keilar implied that conservatives are hypocritical for arguing against mask-wearing in schools while also saying that COVID-19 is bad when being spread by immigrants.
“And again, there is no evidence that they’re responsible for the [COVID-19] surge in U.S. communities,” she added. “It is the centuries-old trope of demonizing foreign people as diseased.”
The border city of McAllen, Texas, declared a state of emergency after 1,500 coronavirus-positive migrants were released into the community in late July. The city told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement that Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) has released over 7,000 confirmed COVID-19 positive immigrants into McAllen since February.
The New York Times reported major viral surges at crowded immigration detention centers. Between April and late June, there were more than 7,500 new COVID-19 cases reported in ICE centers, and fewer than 20% of migrants entering detention centers have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the report.