FLORIDA’S DeSANTIS GETS MULTIPLE PINOCCHIO’S FOR STATEMENTS ON BIDEN
…Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis
The potential 2024 presidential hopeful gets
caught in false statements
I have tried to stay away from commenting on the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, but after he started spreading lies about President Biden, I decided that I could no longer stay away for someone that works in support of the Covid-19 virus.
Here is what DeSantis said, and I will follow with the facts.
DeSantis:
“Joe Biden has the nerve to tell me to get out of the way on COVID while he lets COVID-infected migrants pour over our southern border by the hundreds of thousands. No elected official is doing more to enable the transmission of COVID in America than Joe Biden with his open borders policies. He’s imported more virus from around the world by having a wide-open southern border.”
David Shahoulian, assistant Homeland Security secretary for border and security policy stated the following: A government official in a court filing said the numbers (of immigrants) for July will be higher. “Based on current trends, the Department expects that total encounters this fiscal year are likely to be the highest ever recorded.”
But can DeSantis really blame the border situation for the health crisis on his watch?
The facts:
Because of Title 42, which President Donald Trump implemented in March 2020, and Biden is deciding to end, border authorities are denying entry to migrants more easily and expeditiously and in greater numbers than under Trump’s immigration law. This is a public health emergency declaration, and it’s had a big effect in turning back migrants, whether coronavirus carriers or otherwise.
Shahoulian’s statement said that the Rio Grande Valley experienced a disproportionate number of these encounters, along with the Del Rio border sector. So let’s use this as a discrete example, given we have a lot of recent data for a key part of this region.
In recent days, the city of McAllen, Tex., in
Hidalgo County, has sounded the alarm about “the shockingly large number of
immigrants released by Customs & Border Protection,” which has
overwhelmed a Humanitarian Respite Center run by the Catholic
Charities of the Rio Grande Valley. The center is intended to make sure
migrants are not on McAllen’s streets between their release from border control
custody and their departure to destinations elsewhere in the United States,
where immigration courts will decide their cases.
The city says about 87,000 migrants have passed through the city limits so far in 2021.
DeSantis’ negative comments came after President Biden had expressed frustration with unnamed governors who had resisted government recommendations for mask-wearing. DeSantis lashed out at a news conference, falsely claiming that Biden’s immigration policies have helped “facilitate” the virus in the United States. DeSantis, the potential 2024 presidential hopeful, followed up with a more pointed claim in a fundraising letter that suggested Biden was a “power-hungry tyrant.” This was in the DeSantis fundraising letter on August 4th.
DeSantis’ Florida appears to be in the grip of
the Delta Variant virus as Florida and other state’s Covid-19 hospitalizations
keep breaking records. DeSantis has insisted he’s handled the crisis, even as
he has fought against the coronavirus vaccine mandates and barred
schools from even implementing mask requirements for students. (Fortunately,
some school districts are defying his order.)
Can DeSantis really blame the border situation and the health crisis on Biden?
There’s certainly a big increase in the number of people seeking to cross the southern border. The border states apprehensions under immigration law and coronavirus-related expulsions stemming from those apprehensions totaled 169,204 in March, 173,686 in April, 172,627 in May and 178,416 in June. A government official in a court filing said the numbers for July will be even higher. “Based on current trends, the Department expects that total encounters, both expulsions and entrances this fiscal year are likely to be the highest ever recorded,” said Shahoulian, the assistant Homeland Security secretary.
The point here is that, yes the entrances of immigrants has increased because of Biden’s plans, versus Trump’s, which do not separate family members. But the number of immigrants expulsions have also greatly increased.
The Pinocchio Test
At this point, there is little reason to
believe the Covid-19 positivity rate of the migrants who have not been
apprehended is much different from the positivity rate of those who are
apprehended. What is known is that the positivity rate in the center of the Rio
Grande Valley region, that being Hidalgo County, is higher than the rate
attributed to undocumented immigrants who have been caught.
Could some migrants have infected U.S. citizens? Of course. But given that Catholic Charities seeks to isolate migrants who test positive, the odds appear relatively small.
DeSantis has long argued he handled the
pandemic better than many other governors. Because of his handling, he now faces a crisis in his state. Whether it
is one of his own making remains to be determined, but it makes little sense to
point the finger at Biden based on guesswork and assumptions, not evidence.
It’s certainly rhetorical overkill to assert that “no elected official is
doing more to enable the transmission of COVID in America than Joe Biden.”
It
cannot completely rule out that some spread of the coronavirus is
because of illegal immigration, but so far, there is no evidence to support
DeSantis claim.
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