EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) — More than two dozen U.S. Customs and Border Protection employees from who work on or near the U.S.-Mexico border have tested positive for COVID-19.
According to data published on the CBP website, 160 CBP employees have tested positive for the disease as of Sunday. New York City has the most, with 52.
El Paso Matters, an El Paso-based nonpartisan media organization that first noted the number of infected CBP employees, reported Monday that the agency hasn’t posted similar data for people in its custody and that CBP officials didn’t immediately say whether they would be sharing that data.
As of Sunday, 27 CBP employees who work in communities on or near the U.S. Mexico border have tested for COVID 19:
- Brownsville, Texas: 1
- El Centro, Calif.: 6
- El Paso, Texas: 4
- Laredo, Texas: 7
- Nogales, Ariz.: 3
- Rio Grande City, Texas: 3
- Tucson, Ariz.: 3
On Friday, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, told Border Report that no COVID-19 cases had been reported as of Thursday at detention facilities in the El Paso Sector and that the agency follows care guidelines required by law. That includes facilities in Southern New Mexico.
Three immigrant children in U.S. government custody at a New York facility tested positive for the coronavirus, officials told the Associated Press on March 26.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, said five staff members and a contractor at three separate facilities in New York also tested positive for the virus last month, as well as a foster parent in Washington state, the office said in a statement.
On March 24, the first case of a migrant testing positive for COVID-19 was reported in Hackensack, New Jersey. That day, an ICE guard in Conroe, Texas, also tested positive for the deadly novel virus, officials said.
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