Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical adviser, admitted during a congressional hearing on Thursday that the Biden administration has failed to follow its own health guidance regarding the coronavirus at the southern border.
Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., asked Fauci and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Rochelle Walensky whether immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border are required to be tested for COVID-19 and social distance once they arrive in the country.
When Walensky said the CDC’s guidance applies to everyone that enters the U.S., including migrants, Scalise showed the committee pictures of migrant detention facilities in which scores of migrants are seen crammed together.
“So, in these cells, as you just said, they’re violating the very guidance that you tell Americans to follow. A restaurant in the United States would be shut down today if [it] were being run like this. Yet the federal government — the Biden Administration — is running this facility. You can see all of these young children who are next to each other six inches apart, many without masks, by the way, does that follow your guidance that you’ve issued?” Scalise asked Fauci.
Fauci responded: “No,” adding that “it’s a very difficult situation at the border.”
Fauci has previously faced criticism from Republicans for refusing to condemn the administration’s handling of the pandemic since Biden’s crowded migrant facilities have turned into potential COVID-19 super-spreader sites.
Paging Dr. Fauci:
You need to go to the southern border and witness in person the biggest super spreader event in the nation – President @JoeBiden‘s immigration policies.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) April 2, 2021
“Migrants in these facilities are intermingled and on top of each other,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., tweeted earlier this month. “After being around COVID-positives, they are dumped off in Texas and taken to other parts of the country furthering the spread. Dr. Fauci, does COVID-science justify President Biden’s handling of migrants from Central America?”
If you are worried about the spread of COVID, you should be gravely concerned about what is happening at our southern border.
There is no end in sight on this super-spreader event until these policies are changed.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) April 2, 2021
Fauci responded and said Graham was trying to “equate me with things that have to do with the border.”
“I have nothing to do with the border,” Fauci told Fox News. “Obviously, it is a very difficult situation at the border. We all know that. The administration is trying as best as they can to alleviate that situation. Having me down at the border. That’s really not what I do.”
If Fauci is not “compelled to shut down this illegal immigration program,” Graham responded, “I don’t want to hear anything you have to say about baseball or restaurants.”
“I’m not worried about the baseball game in Texas,” Graham added. “I’m worried about illegal immigrants infecting the whole country given the policies that Biden has.”
