COVID-19 Struggles with the Transportation of Migrants

In McAllen, Texas, the Humanitarian Respite Center takes in and provides goods and services to migrant families that would otherwise be living on the streets. The Center gives food, clothing, medical care, and temporary rest to over 1,000 migrants that have been released from Border Control. The Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley created this center to help migrants in need after they have crossed the border and been released from law enforcement. Catholic Charities is a ministry that devotes its work to providing service to the less fortunate. Catholic Charities, after the migrants are given the care they need, transport them to shelters, hospitals, or reunite with their families. Once the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the Center began testing migrants for COVID-19. If they tested positive, they were quarantined at nearby hotels until Texas issued an order that prohibited non-governmental programs from transporting migrants anywhere in Texas.

Texas enacted this order due to the compelling state interest in “preventing COVID-19 transmission.” This order did not allow the Center to transport migrants to bus stations, hospitals, airports, and other shelters. The order also prevented the Center from taking positive migrants with COVID-19 to quarantined locations to prevent the spread of COVID. Because of the Center’s inability to maintain COVID-19 due to the lack of transportation, they stopped taking in any more immigrants. This led to Border Patrol leaving migrants, without being tested for COVID-19, in local areas, making the likelihood of the transmission of COVID-19 throughout the community a lot higher. Not only did the COVID-19 rates rise, but the number of migrants with no food or water also rose as well.

The Department of Justice saw how this order could negatively affect the federal government’s operations, so they filed a lawsuit to revoke the order. Temporary relief from this order was granted but came with an expiration date of two weeks. Another case was then filed two days before the expiration that highlighted how this order impeded the religious rights of Catholic Charities. This order severely negatively affected Catholic Charities’ ability to carry out its religious mission. They believe that this order is impeding on their God-given task to give all the help to migrants they can, but, more importantly, to give equal respect and dignity to the migrants. The petitioners argued that this order is unconstitutional, violates the Free Exercise Clause in the First Amendment, and violates the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The Texan government targeted and attacked the religious freedoms of Catholic Charities for not allowing them to serve migrants, also known as, doing God’s work. The order invoked prohibited non-governmental entities from transporting migrants anywhere in Texas. The Humanitarian Respite Center was one of the only religious groups doing this.

Not only is this an unconstitutional order, this order does nothing but harm to the public good. Instead of suppressing the spread of COVID-19, it enhances it. By forcing Border Control to release untested migrants throughout the state, COVID-19 is exposed and endangers all Texans. Similar to the Church of Lukmi Babln Aye, Inc v. Hialeah, in which a religious group was specifically targeted and prevented from practicing religious ceremonies, the government did not try to find alternative means that would be neutral facially and in practice. In the Church of Lukmi Babln Aye, Inc v. Hialeah, the government decided that the group's practices were harmful to the community but did not care to seek alternative options that would make all content. In this case, United States of America v. State of Texas, the government only cared about the danger of COVID-19, but they did not look at the outcomes of their actions, more importantly, who would be affected.

There is a compelling state interest to revoke this order and allow transportation of migrants to continue because it would lead to a lessening of the spread of COVID-19. There are no other alternative actions unless Border Control is forced to test and quarantine positive individuals. There is no undue hardship done to the rest of the community from the Humanitarian Respite Center’s actions. Not allowing Catholic Charities to use their center, the government is placing a substantial burden on, not only the migrants but also the religious individuals. The people of Catholic Charities believe that it is their duty, given to them by God, to provide aid to migrants. The order limiting transportation completely destroys the center and does not allow them to act anymore. While removing the order is beneficial to all of Texas and the spread of COVID-19, it also allows people’s divine work to continue.

Currently, this case is pending, so there is no final decision. Do you believe that Catholic Charities' Free Exercise rights were violated? Are their religious beliefs being infringed upon? If the order helped diminish the spread of COVID-19 would there be a different outcome regarding whether or not religious rights were violated?