No, the surge in Covid cases across the U.S. is not due to migrants or immigrants

As the delta variant contributes to a surge of Covid-19 cases around the United States, different voices have emerged blaming people entering the country — in particular, migrants crossing the U.S. border — for the spread.

Among the most vocal are Republican Govs. Greg Abbott in Texas and Ron DeSantis in Florida.

Abbott has repeatedly blamed undocumented immigrants for the rise in Covid-19 cases in the state and issued an executive order to limit the transport of migrants in Texas who may transmit the virus. The Justice Department called the order “dangerous and unlawful”; a judge temporarily blocked it.

DeSantis, for his part, blamed President Joe Biden for importing the virus from around the world “by having a wide open southern border.”

“You have over 100 different countries where people are pouring through,” DeSantis said Aug. 4. “Not only are they letting them through, they’re then farming them out all across our communities across this country, putting them on planes, putting them on buses.”

Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds voiced a similar view in late July, claiming that while Americans grapple with Covid restrictions, there are “people coming across the border that haven’t been vaccinated.”

Last week, while discussing the possibility of ordering the use of masks in schools, members of school boards from two counties in North Carolina accused undocumented immigrants of causing the increase in Covid-19 cases in the country, The Charlotte Observer reported.

In addition, about one-third of unvaccinated citizens believe foreigners traveling to the U.S. are the cause of the increase in coronavirus infections, according to an Axios-Ipsos survey published Aug. 3.

But there’s no evidence to support these types of accusations. While it is true that people entering the country without permission could be contributing to the overall number of Covid-19 cases — as has been the case recently in McAllen, Texas — experts believe the impact of these cases does not make a difference in the American health situation.

Not migration, but low vaccination rates