Ag Commissioner Miller: Surge at border could usher in disease

The Texas Ag Commissioner says that the surge at the border puts American livestock at risk for disease.

Earlier this month, as many as 15,000 migrants built a tent city under a bridge in Del Rio. The administration has since moved most of the migrants to the U.S. interior, but a report from Reuters this week says that as many as 20,000 more are headed our way, via South America.

Commissioner Sid Miller told us there is a threat they can bring African swine fever with them, and more.

“These people haven’t been through Customs; they haven’t been inspected. We don’t know what type of products they are bringing with them... it could be anything. We could get all types of diseases because none of these people have really been checked, or vetted, or been through screening... we could get an infestation of, you know, fruit flies, citrus greening, citrus canker, boweavils. Who knows what would come in with all that stuff they are packing in. It is not a good situation,” the Commissioner explains.

Miller says that another threat is the recent ban on horses being used by Border Patrol. He says that those horses keep feral animals and livestock from crossing the open border.

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