Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has placed checkpoints t the Louisiana Department of Texas and making people flying from large metropolitan areas like New York, New Orleans, etc., self-quarantine for 14 days.
Flights from those cities are also restricted and passengers asked so submit to testing and quarantines.
Meanwhile, despite the safeguards on the northern and eastern borders of the state, visitors from Matamoros are still being allowed to cross into Brownsville to do their sundry chores. And with COVID-19 cases on the rise in Mexico and the cavalier attitudes by public officials there starting with President Andres Manuel Lopez Labrador, the border is ripe for infection.
The Matamoros mayor - somewhat disingenuously - requested that Mayor Trey Mendez prevent Brownsville residents from crossing into Matamoros. He pointed to the Texas COVID- 19 4th rank in the United States of states with virus cases.
Cameron County has 26 cases, including: Brownsville: 11, Rancho Viejo: 3, Harlingen: 7, Los Fresnos: 2, Rio Hondo: 1, Laguna Vista: 1, and San Benito: 1.
Yet, pedestrians and vehicles continue to cross the bridges. The Los Tomates Bridge, designed to handle move commerce and freight, continues to operate. They travel to the Port of Brownsville or upstate. The transmittal frequency potential there, while minimal, still constitutes some risk.
But the pedestrian traffic going both ways at the Gateway and Old Bridge continues unabated. Crossing-card holders, resident aliens, and Brownsville residents continue to go back and forth. Some, of course, have jobs. Many of the maquila managers live in Brownsville and as do some Brownsville professionals who work in various Matamoros enterprises.
But the majority is not.
Take a look at the photo above taken today. Do you see any social distancing here? Do you think that the handrails have been sanitized after someone touched them?
The asylum-seeker campamento is at the foot of the Bridge on the Matamoros side, so everyone who crosses on foot comes into close proximity with the unfortunate tenants awaiting to apply for asylum from U.S. authorities.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have cited this very scenario in their recommendations that federal authorities eliminate the infection potential of staff and other pedestrians and reschedule the hearings.
Today the U. S. Department of Justice announced it has postponed all court hearings scheduled before April 22 citing the CDCP warning.
Yet, Brownsville residents continue to travel to Matamoros - and Matamoros residents here - to go shopping, visit relatives and friends, and for for sundry non-essential reasons, even to do odd jobs here to earn a few bucks, or over there to dental appointments, have dinner at Garcia's, a ver la movida, buy liquor, etc.
The federal government's purview does not extend to the pedestrian - citizen or non-citizen - once they are out of their jurisdiction. But whoever comes into Brownsville is subject to the shelter in place declaration as soon as he steps onto a city street. Will it be enforced?
Someone said that one way to address this potential infection sector would be for Mayor Trey Mendez and County Judge Eddie Trevino to slow down on the grandstanding and step up to the plate and post city, constables or sheriff department officers at the pedestrian exits and question them on whether they are going home or are just here to visit.
Options would be for those Mexican citizens on non-essential pursuits can be directed back cross the bridge. Brownsville residents would be required to go directly home as per the shelter in place declaration.
Heavy-handed?
Perhaps, but if the CDCP has pointed out the situation addressing its warning specifically to this port of entry, it might be well to heed the warning lest the highly-contagious virus gets a foothold here and causes sickness, perhaps death, and force he extension of the shelter in place declaration period.
Matamoros officials have voiced their opposition to allowing Brownsville residents with non-essential trips there fearing that crossers from a heavily-infected state will infect their citizens. They're right. Brownsville and Cameron County should do the same.
Shelter in place should be put in effect on both sides.