Indian man apprehended at US-Mexico border for illegal border crossing tests positive for coronavirus
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An Indian national who was apprehended last week after being suspected of illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in California with three other Mexican nationals has tested positive for coronavirus.
The 31-year-old man was apprehended Thursday near Calexico, taken into custody by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and placed in quarantine after exhibiting flu-like symptoms, CBP said in a statement.
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Officials then tested him for COVID-19 and the test came back positive.
The three Mexicans were returned to Mexico, while the Indian man has been transferred to the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to receive further medical treatment.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“This is precisely the reason the CDC has given CBP the authority to rapidly return individuals that could potentially be infected with COVID-19," CBP Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan said in a statement.
In an effort to quell the spread of the virus, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a ban on nonessential travel across the U.S. borders in late March. The directive also gave CBP the authority to send suspected illegal border crossers back to their country of origin, rather than holding them in CBP facilities for prolonged periods of time.
The guidance coincided with warnings from the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Robert Redfield, who at the time singled out ports of entries around the country as potential hotbeds for coronavirus to spread to workers at border facilities and U.S. citizens.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The man is the first person in CBP custody to test positive for coronavirus. Meanwhile, 303 agents have tested positive for coronavirus as of Sunday, with 48 of those cases confirmed in California, according to reports by Newsweek.
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“The potential for the introduction and spread of COVID-19 in CBP stations and processing centers presents a danger to migrants, our frontline agents and officers, and the American people," Morgan said. "Our agents and officers continue to protect our country from this invisible enemy, risking their own lives for the health of our nation."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Officials are conducting contact tracing to determine who else might have been exposed to the virus.