This article has been updated to include the results of a fact-check on the sheriff’s claim.
AJ Louderback, Sheriff of Jackson County in Texas, told Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Monday night that it was “absolutely true” that the Biden administration was releasing illegal immigrants into U.S. communities without giving them a COVID-19 test.
“It’s absolutely true,” Louderback said. “It’s even, if I can continue, Tucker, the memo, the memo that I received this last week, it’s essentially a defund the ICE by memo, by a memorandum that was sent out by David Borkowski on Jan. 20 or 21. So this is a particularly devastating document for Texans and Americans here in the United States. The message really has been sent, when I read it first and looked at it, it’s a message to the world, you can come here illegally, you could commit crimes here against Americans and remain here illegally.”
After Louderback’s criticism of the Biden administration’s border policies made headlines, FactCheck.org published a fact-check concluding that the administration “has maintained the same procedures for COVID-19 testing in detention facilities that were in effect during the previous administration.”
“Nothing in the Biden administration’s policy indicates a break from the standing policy on COVID-19 testing, Josiah Heyman, director of the Center for Interamerican and Border Studies at the University of Texas at El Paso, told us in a phone interview,” the fact-checker said in a Feb. 25 report. “Both U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol confirmed to us that no such policies had changed.”
According to Louderback, the policies of the Biden administration when it comes to the southern border and immigration are going to get people “hurt, seriously injured, killed.” The policies would cause “irreparable harm,” he said, and law enforcement officials are “worried.”
“Every police officer in the United States should be extremely concerned about the attitude, the lawlessness, the complete abject removal of law, we have a nullification of the law here going on,” he said. “It’s not we’re not we’re gonna … enforce anything, we’re going to we’re going to allow our CBP, our ICE officers, USCIS, all three were affected by this memo, which effectively guts the IMA and in handcuffs them where they’re unable to respond. So in law enforcement here, those of us who do not have the jurisdiction to enforce the federal laws here, we have created a situation here, which is unthinkable for the public. The public has no idea, the strength of a memorandum that’s been filed here in the United States by this administration.”
WATCH:
TRANSCRIPT:
TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: It’s not the root of all these conversations. It’s a smokescreen. None of these conversations have anything to do with race whatsoever. It’s about protecting the American population. Period. Joining us now is AJ Louderback. He’s the Jackson County Sheriff. And we’re happy to have you with us, Sheriff Louderback. Is it true in the state of Texas, that people who have been detained because they’re not here legally, they’re foreign nationals, are being released without Coronavirus tests?
AJ LOUDERBACK: It’s absolutely true. It’s Absolutely true. It’s even, if I can continue Tucker, the memo, the memo that I received this last week, it’s essentially a defund the ICE by memo, by a memorandum that was sent out by David Borkowski on January 20 of 21. So this is a particularly devastating document for Texans and Americans here in the United States. The message really has been sent, when I read it first and looked at it, it’s a message to the world, you can come here illegally, you could commit crimes here against Americans and remain here illegally.
CARLSON: But of all things, the Coronavirus, since Americans are now being told in the near future, we may not be allowed to fly on airplanes domestically without being proven free of the virus without a certificate that says we’ve been tested in our negative, how in a country like that, could we just forget to test illegal aliens for the virus before releasing them? Like how did that happen? Do you know?
LOUDERBACK: No, I’m sure wouldn’t, wouldn’t forgot item. You know, I don’t know. But in the haste to open the border for everyone in this country. This is something that I expected to some degree, we walked this path and from 2008 to 2016. This program that was released by memorandum … a priority enforcement program from in 2014, 2015 where people were able to commit crimes here against Americans. The COVID issue conveniently overlooked during this time. So you know, I struggle for a thought process, like many Americans and Texans, on how the administration can conduct themselves in this manner, and promote a lawless attitude here where people are going to get hurt, seriously injured, killed, and people vowed to stay here, which is unbelievable. Yet here we sit with this situation.
CARLSON: Yeah. In a country where you’re not allowed to go to church or go to funerals, because of Coronavirus. Are you worried about the the effects of this? What do you think the effects will be?
LOUDERBACK: Irrepairable harm, Tucker. Yes, we’re worried. Every police officer in the United States should be extremely concerned about the attitude, the lawlessness, the complete abject removal of law, we have a nullification of the law here going on. It’s not we’re not we’re gonna … enforce anything, we’re going to we’re going to allow our CBP, our ICE officers, USCIS, all three were affected by this memo, which effectively guts the IMA and in handcuffs them where they’re unable to respond. So in law enforcement here, those of us who do not have the jurisdiction to enforce the federal laws here, we have created a situation here, which is unthinkable for the public. The public has no idea, the strength of a memorandum that’s been filed here in the United States by this administration. So it’s, you know, I think it’s our job and I appreciate, you know, your program and inviting me on here to get the word out in spread what’s happened here, and what’s happening right before our very eyes, what this administration is doing.