By Julia Ainsley - NBC News
More than 18% of migrant families and 20% of unaccompanied minors who recently crossed the border between Mexico and the United States tested positive for COVID-19 when released by the Border Patrol in the last two to three weeks, according to with a document prepared this week for a Thursday briefing with President Joe Biden.
On some flights scheduled for the deportation of migrants,
more than 25% of the passengers had tested positive before taking off
, prompting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to remove those migrants from the flights to be quarantined in the United States, according to the report.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) document does not give precise dates or indicate how many migrants were subjected to diagnostic tests.
A flight with more than a hundred deported immigrants arrives in Guatemala
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Migrants are not tested for COVID-19 in Border Patrol custody unless they show symptoms, but all are tested when they leave custody, according to DHS officials.
Immigrants who are allowed to stay in the United States to apply for asylum pass the tests on their side when they are transferred to ICE, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) or non-governmental organizations.
People who are scheduled to be deported by plane are tested for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases by ICE.
[Abbott issues executive order to limit the transportation of migrants in Texas who may transmit COVID-19]
As of Wednesday,
more than 15,000 migrants were in Border Patrol custody
, according to Customs and Border Protection data obtained by NBC News, the sister network of Noticias Telemundo.
If a migrant who is about to be deported by ICE tests positive, they are quarantined and their deportation delayed
, according to DHS.
The document specifically refers to migrants selected for "expedited removal," those who were deported shortly after crossing or attempting to cross the US border.
"In the last 2-3 weeks, the positivity percentages among all demographic groups have increased,"
the document notes.
The report also recommends that DHS station more medical personnel at border processing facilities, citing one in the Rio Grande Valley where
three paramedics were in charge of 3,000 migrants.
[Reports of Migrants Released by the Border Patrol with COVID-19 Cause Concern in Texas Border Counties]
A second DHS document prepared this week for the White House highlights that high positivity rates are "testing the capacity of the NGOs and local governments with which DHS currently partners to serve them."
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That report attributes the rise in COVID-19 cases among undocumented immigrants to
"the highly communicable delta variant combined with longer stays in
overcrowded [Customs and Border Protection] facilities."
The high rates have prompted emergency meetings between the White House, HHS and DHS this week, according to two sources familiar with the talks.
[This immigrant escaped poverty in Honduras and his kidnappers in Mexico but death awaited him in Texas]
The informational materials make it clear that the high number of immigrants with coronavirus is slowing down the deportation of families, an effort that the Administration intensified at the end of July.
"DHS and CBP take their responsibility to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other diseases very seriously. CBP provides migrants who cannot be removed or who are awaiting processing an EPI from the moment in which they are taken into custody, and migrants are required to keep the mask on at all times, including when they are transferred or are in the process of being released. If someone shows signs of illness in CBP custody, they are referred to the local health systems for proper testing, diagnosis, isolation and treatment, "a White House spokesman said in a statement.
The
Biden administration is considering testing all migrants in Border Patrol custody,
according to the second document, but CBP, the Border Patrol's parent agency, does not currently have the capacity to test.
Border Patrol Deputy Chief Raúl Ortiz, soon to take over as chief, explained to NBC News on Wednesday that those tests would increase saturation at Border Patrol facilities.
["I never imagined receiving this inhumane treatment": Immigrant arrests skyrocket despite Biden's campaign promises]
"As you can see, we are already overwhelmed," said Ortiz, standing by a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, where hundreds of migrants have been detained at a time, sleeping on the ground, as border processing centers it is six times over its capacity.
On Tuesday, CBP detained 6,725 undocumented immigrants crossing into the United States, according to internal data obtained by NBC News, maintaining the daily rhythm of
July, in which there were 210,000 total apprehensions, the highest in 21 years.
Of the more than 6,700 detainees,
more than 900 were unaccompanied children
, a demographic that continues to grow, according to the data.