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A Texas border city is issuing a disaster declaration and asking for an emergency court hearing on migrant transfers. Laredo Mayor Pete Saenz issued the declaration yesterday saying U.S. Customs and Border Protection is releasing "an alarming number" of migrants within city limits including those who have coronavirus.
The declaration says those immigrants may not be able to find medical care or shelter because non-profits are overwhelmed. The city is asking a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order against Department of Homeland Security and ban it from transporting captured illegal immigrants from the nearby Rio Grande Valley to Laredo. City attorneys say one migrant shelter had to be quarantined because it's housing 73 COVID positive migrants.
The suit also says local hospitals are running out of room to care for coronavirus patients.