alex. julie: covid cases are surging at the border with 135 detained migrants in the the rio grande valley sector, testing positive for covid in just the first two weeks of july. this morning, therande valley border patrol chief reports that there are actually 44 agents currently have tested positive. there are five of them that are currently in the hospital, conditions unknown. former acting director of immigration and customs enforcement, ron vitiello, joins me now. there are so many disturbing facts coming out and details behind this on multiple fronts. the border patrol agents, let s talk about that. 44 have tested positive, fiber in the hospital. this could be prevented. that s the most frustrating part in all of this. it s very concerning. my heart goes out to the workforce, the cbp, the officers and agents. they can t skype to their jobs,
tracking a group of sitting in people who came across the rio grande at night. he will see i took a grainy photo in the low light, if you d about waist deep water crossing the rio grande. they were tracking that group, ultimately most of them were apprehended by that elite force. take a look at this video we shot as soon as he got out here in del rio this morning. we saw border patrol pickup trucks coming through, he had loaded up a group of migrants in the back of his truck, brought them through the border wall and drop them off where they were going to be taken away. look at this video we shot moments after that. this is boats from the florida department of fish and wildlife. we heard governor ron desantis that he would send help to texas. it s been here, this is some of that help. the fish and wildlife department sending both to put in the rio grande to help texas troopers patrolled the rio grande, and take a look at this video. mexican marines are also patrolling some times on on t
notice that when they are there the crossings slow down and it won t be as much. take a look at these wild photos out of laredo, this is a mental moving truck that was stopped at a checkpoint off of highway 35. take a look at this, they have the x-ray machine where they can see through it. five people were crammed inside and hidden inside of that rental truck. they were being smuggled by a human smuggler, trying to get into the country. five of them were later apprehended. what you doing right now is taking a live look at our fox drone down in la joya, texas, down in the rio grande valley where fox broke a major story late yesterday. griff jenkins reporting that we can confirm down in the rio grande valley there has been a 900% increase in the amount of migrants testing positive for covid within the first two weeks of july. the border patrol sector chief reporting down there more than 40 of his agents have tested positive for covid, five of them currently hospitalized. we will send it
them more transmissible to humans, once everyone puts this together, he realizes where the blame is going to attach. julie: senator rand paul sounding off on hannity last night going after dr. anthony fatty over gain of function research. the fireworks started earlier in the day during a hearing with federal health officials. the kentucky republican says fauci lied to congress, and now plans to ask the justice department for a criminal referral. all this, as we learn dozens of border patrol agents have tested positive for covid with at least five in the hospital. griff jenkins is live in washington this morning with more. good morning. good morning, julie. that s right, the border is spiking with covid cases and the numbers in the rio grande valley sector are nothing short of alarming. they are seeing a 900% increase in positive cases in migrant detainees, 135 and just the first two weeks of july, and 44 border patrol agents are
you can t patrol the border over your computer screen. they have to be at those locations, and they are exposed to people coming from all over the world. only half of the united states is vaccinated, so the people coming from these third world countries have much less vaccination. in that pipeline they are in crowded conditions. at the border they are in stash houses and agents have to interact with those people and take them into custody. a job by itself is risky, then you add the pandemic on top of that. they have to interact with these folks from all over the world and then got back home to their own families. you can imagine the stress they are under in regular conditions. but the pandemic on top of that, it s very concerning. julie: the numbers are just staggering and they haven t gotten any better since this administration took control of our country in january. but here s what i was also surprised to hear, when migrants are taken into custody, border patrol doesn t actually ty