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The Texas Tribume
March 7, 2021

Gov. Greg Abbott rejects aid from Biden administration in dispute over coronavirus testing for migrants
By Patrick Svitek and Julián Aguilar


The Biden administration has also stopped adding migrants to the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols, which forced tens of thousands of asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their hearings in American courts. Some of the first MPP arrivals began entering Texas last week at Brownsville and El Paso, but they are tested for COVID-19 before entering, confirmed Ruben Garcia, the director of the Annunciation House shelter network that is temporarily housing the migrants. The release of asylum seekers from custody with notices to appear has been a lightning rod issue for Republicans who incorrectly claim that most asylum seekers ignore the notices and instead try to live in the shadows unlawfully. A 2019 study from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, which uses Freedom of Information Act requests to track immigration court cases, found that more than 80% of all migrants show up for their court hearings, and that number increases to nearly 100% if the asylum seekers have representation.


Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University
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