A double surge has overwhelmed the Rio Grande Valley as the flow of recent immigrants has exceeded the capacity of shelters to take them and new cases of COVID-19 once again make public interactions a hazardous proposition. The Catholic Charities Respite Center in McAllen, the largest intake facility for migrants in the region, reached capacity last week and had to stop receiving migrants who were being released by Homeland Security officials after processing.
The situation is only made worse by Gov. Greg Abbott’s recent order that state troopers stop any vehicle that tries to take the migrants elsewhere.
The recent rise in COVID-19 cases both in the Valley and nationwide, driven by the Delta variant of the coronavirus, is attacking not only the general population but the migrants as well. This only complicates the problem of what to do with them if centers like the one in McAllen can’t take anymore.
Certainly, the last thing that should be done is to simply send them to Mexico, which would resurrect an insensitive and much-criticized policy from the previous administration. U.S. agencies, both government and private, are best equipped to work toward ensuring public safety. New detainees should all be tested for the coronavirus; those who test positive must be treated and those who don’t should be vaccinated if possible. This addresses the disease among the migrants and everyone with whom they have contact. Sending them south where they aren’t likely to receive such treatment compromises their safety, that of the communities where they are released, and Valley residents if more people are infected in Mexico and come north for any reason.
Processing, vaccination if possible and eventual release seem to be the best option. Indefinite detention would be unreasonable even if facilities could hold them — they can’t.
It also would be unreasonable to cast any blame toward the migrants with regard to the new surge in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths. The fault clearly lies with those who still refuse to get the vaccine.
While the Delta variant has infected some vaccinated people, officials say the vaccine clearly reduces the effects of the disease. State health officials say that 99.5% of all hospitalizations and deaths to COVID-19 in the past month were people who hadn’t been vaccinated. Health care workers have reported that the last words many of them say are pleas to get the shot, and the last words they hear are, “We’re sorry, it’s too late.”
To be sure, we understand the spirit of rugged individualism that some people cite in their resistance to the vaccine. That spirit, however, doesn’t simply mean a defiance against authority; it’s a commitment to taking care of themselves, using whatever resources are available, without relying on others needlessly. In that spirit, people should recognize the continued risks and the proven benefits, and walk into their local pharmacy for the COVID-19 shot — not because they’ve been asked to do so, but because it’s an easy way to better secure their own safety and that of those around them.
Let public officials wrestle with the current problems. Look out for your own welfare — and get vaccinated.
