Category: San Antonio News

Seven of the city’s 16 school districts, including its three largest, have laid out the COVID-19 policies each has in effect as students, teachers, and staff who’d fallen ill prepare to return to campus.

Some follow CDC guidelines, others rely on the Texas Education Agency regarding how long the quarantine period should be.

EAST CENTRAL ISD

“We do not require a test to return. Individuals can test positive for up to a month or so after their initial diagnosis. The key is that they’re home during the period of being contagious. The current recommendation from the CDC is 5 days,” said Brandon Oliver, spokesman for the East Central Independent School District.

EDGEWOOD ISD

“In Edgewood ISD, we do not require proof of a negative Covid test to return to school for students/staff. EISD continues to offer weekly COVID tests to all students (with parent permission) and staff (voluntary). We are also actively working with our health care partners to offer future community vaccine clinics in our district. Lastly, EISD is still in a mask mandate, so all students, staff, and visitors are required to wear masks,” said Keyhla Calderon-Lugo, spokeswoman for the Edgewood Independent School District.

HARLANDALE ISD

“We ask that our students stay home for 5 days after testing positive, as noted in our safety plan below,” said Mariana Veraza, spokeswoman for the Harlandale Independent School District.

She also said, “We actually offer PCR tests every Tuesday for ALL of our students and staff. We have had this partnership with Community labs all year.”

NORTH EAST ISD

“There is no requirement for a negative test in order to return if quarantine guidelines are followed. But, in order to return earlier, yes,” said Aubrey Chancellor, spokeswoman for the North East Independent School District. Chancellor provided the following information below.

If a student tests positive for COVID-19, he/she will isolate at home for 5 days after the day symptoms began, or after the day their positive test was collected if they have not had symptoms. The student may discontinue home isolation after 5 days if they:

Are without symptoms or their symptoms are resolving, ANDHave been fever-free without the use of fever-reducing medication for at least 24 hours, ANDWill wear a face mask consistently and correctly when around others for an additional 5 days

If the student continues to have symptoms that are not resolving after 5 days, they will isolate at home until:

At least 24 hours fever free without the use of fever-reducing medication, ANDImprovement in symptomsStudents will isolate following a COVID-19 diagnosis without an attendance penalty.Students experiencing symptoms of a contagious illness may return to school when they have been fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication, other symptoms have improved, AND one of the following criteria have been met:5 days have passed since symptoms beganObtain a note from a medical professional clearing the student or employee to return based on an alternate diagnosisObtain a negative molecular (PCR) COVID-19 testObtain a negative antigen (rapid) COVID-19 test no sooner than Day 3 after symptoms began

SAISD

Laura Short, spokeswoman for the San Antonio Independent School District, provided a letter sent to parents welcoming their students for the spring semester. It also details quarantine procedures based on the CDC and Metro Health.

Testing Following Isolation

Metro Health in accordance with the CDC guidance does not require a test at the end of isolation.Some people may remain positive by PCR test beyond the period of expected infectiousness.The importance of a positive antigen test late in the course of illness is unclear and does not necessarily mean a person can easily spread the virus.

Southside ISD

“We are following TEA’s guidance which is 10 days for students,” said Randy Escamilla, spokesman for the Southside Independent School District.

Regarding testing:

If diagnosed/test confirmed COVID positive, students stay home for 10 days. We do not require a negative test to return to classes once symptoms are improving or resolved.If symptomatic and results are negative with a rapid test, we require students to stay home until a follow-up PCR test confirms test results. We will also accept a doctor’s note releasing a student to return back to class. We ask that doctors consider testing all symptomatic children no matter what their age.If the individual is suspected of having (not test confirmed to be positive) comes back with a negative test, the individual can return to school earlier than 10 days.

SOUTHWEST ISD

“We only require a negative PCR if they want to return before the 5-day quarantine is up,” said Jenny Collier, spokeswoman for the Southwest Independent School District, who also provided the following information.

“For students that have no symptoms but test positive, they are required to stay home until 5 days after their positive test. If students want to return prior to the 5-day isolation/quarantine that the CDC recommends they must provide a negative COVID-19 PCR or they may return with a negative COVID-19 rapid antigen test provided they have a doctor’s note clearing them to return. Another option is to have clearance from a physician in lieu of a negative COVID PCR test or they stay home for 5 days and may return on Day 6 wearing a mask as long as they do not have fever and symptoms are improving,” Collier said.

Collisions like the one on the Northeast Side on Tuesday morning between a train and an 18-wheeler can cause more than just traffic delays. They can impact when goods are shipped or delivered.

“When there’s a problem, it creates a ripple effect in that part of the supply chain, from the goods being made to being delivered to the customer, whether it’s something that’s going to Target or whether it’s something going to a hospital,” said Nicole Katsikides, a research scientist with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute.

More catastrophic incidents like the massive tie-ups during the winter freeze in Texas last year or on Interstate 95 in Virginia last week can have bigger ripple effects.

“Things can get rerouted. It could take a lot of extra days for trucks to make deliveries,” Katsikides said. “They could miss shipping and delivery calls when they’re connecting to another move, like a railroad or a ship, and that can delay freight for weeks or months, depending on the shipping cycle that they have negotiated. It could cause problems with labor and people’s jobs.”

Projects like the one planned I-35 on San Antonio’s northeast side could help ease congestion by separating truck traffic that’s passing through from local traffic.

There’s also the advent of technology that can connects sensors on roads to trucks and other vehicles, which could alert drivers to avoid congestion or dangerous conditions before it’s too late. The data would also have the potential of helping transportation agencies make better investments to improve safety.

“It’s important to look at ways that we can either make the investments in the system or operate it in a smarter way to help goods move because we all need things, whether it’s medicine or clothes or any of the goods that we use. And it’s critical for our nation that we protect our supply chains,” Katsikides said.

Have questions about transportation or traffic? Let us know, and your answer may be our next story. Find past answers on our traffic page.

Just the mention of the word immigration can be divisive. Some people consider themselves for it, or against it. Some see it as much more nuanced and complex than that.

But nearly everyone sees it as political.

It’s a sensitive topic, particularly for those who have left their home countries to find safety elsewhere. For this episode of KSAT Explains, we wanted to share the stories of some of those people, but despite several requests, no one we reached out to was willing to go on camera. Some feared deportation or retaliation in some way.

The pandemic has made this already sensitive issue even more complicated. In March 2020, the Trump administration invoked a little-known provision in federal law that has essentially shut our borders to migrants and asylum-seekers for the past 22 months.

In this episode of KSAT Explains, we’re examining how the asylum-seeking process is supposed to work, and how Title 42 has upended that system.

(Watch the full episode on-demand in the video player above.)

SMART. IN-DEPTH. LOCAL: Click here for more episodes of KSAT Explains

The asylum process, explained

Asylum is a legal effort at immigration by someone who is fleeing their home country. Essentially, they are seeking refuge in the United States.

If someone wants to seek asylum in the United States, the first thing they must do is get to the border. For many migrants, that means a treacherous international trek north that kills hundreds every year.

Once they arrive at the U.S. border, asylum seekers must cross into the country because a person must be physically present in the U.S. to seek asylum here. Even though doing so without documentation is still ostensibly against the law.

Once the migrant has made it into the U.S., they must present themselves to a federal immigration agent, often at a port of entry, or bridge.

The next step is typically a “credible fear” interview. Credible fear is the threshold an asylum seeker must reach to advance in their legal effort. Federal immigration agents ask questions to determine why the person is fleeing their home country and whether that is considered credible fear of persecution under U.S. law.

If the person demonstrates a “credible fear,” then the next step is a hearing in front of an immigration judge. The hearing, which will determine whether an individual is granted asylum status, will often take weeks or even months.

During the time before their hearing, they are often detained by ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] or sometimes released to a family member in the U.S. but tracked with an ankle monitor or an app on their cell phones.

Erica Schommer, practicing attorney and clinical professor of immigration at St. Mary’s University School of Law, said the “vast majority of people who are seeking asylum have a friend or family member in the U.S. that they’re hoping to stay with during the process.”

“Detention looks different if you’re in a family unit, or if you’re just an adult who’s alone, or if you’re a minor,” said Cristian Sanchez, supervising attorney at Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, or RAICES.

Once an asylum seeker has their day in court, the judge can grant or refuse asylum. If a person’s case is denied, they face deportation. Rulings can be appealed but that can take years. Asylum seekers might also try another avenue of legal migration.

The timeline is not often followed

As complicated as the above process may sound in theory, it gets even murkier in practice. With the asylum process, there are time frames in which certain steps are supposed to be taken. But from almost the very first step, experts say deadlines are typically not met.

For example, when migrants turn themselves in, they are initially detained in a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility.

“Nobody is supposed to stay in CBP custody for more than 72 hours,” Schommer said. “We know that that’s routinely violated.”

If a migrant is referred for a credible fear interview, they are transferred to an ICE detention center – like the one in Pearsall – while they wait. That interview is supposed to happen within seven days. But, again, Schommer said that almost never happens.

Once a person has their case before an immigration judge, there is no required timeline for when progress must be made in the case. And how long migrants must wait for a court date often depends on where they choose to wait out the process.

“If you do the whole process while you’re detained, it takes a couple of months,” he said.

But if a migrant is able to and chooses to be released, it could take years.

“Many detention centers have their own court, so they have judges just for that detention center,” Sanchez said. “Judges that do non-detained cases might be seeing asylum [cases] and a hundred other things. So it could just take longer.”

The immigration court system has long been backlogged. The attorneys we talked to believe the backlog can be blamed on a combination of things, with lack of resources and bureaucracy being among the most important.

“The immigration court is part of a federal agency and it’s slow to respond,” Schommer said.

Title 42, explained

The pandemic didn’t just add to the backlog of immigration cases. It also led to the authorization of a little-known provision in federal law that has essentially shut out many migrants for the past 22 months.

In March 2020, ten days after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus a global pandemic, then-President Donald Trump invoked section 265 of Title 42 of the United States Code. The public health law allows the federal government to ban people or goods from entering the U.S. to prevent the spread of disease. In this case, COVID-19.

With this provision invoked, instead of processing asylum-seekers and migrants who are hoping to stay in the country, border agents can now just fingerprint them and expel them from the U.S., either to Mexico or their country of origin.

It’s important to note that this isn’t legally the same as deportation.

“It doesn’t carry the future consequences that people would have if they were deported at the border by an immigration judge,” Schommer said.

When someone is deported, they are barred from re-entering the country for a certain number of years, depending on the reason for the deportation. Title 42 expulsions don’t carry that consequence, which means it’s less risky to attempt to re-enter the country.

But that doesn’t mean there is no consequence for those expelled.

“It does have a real effect on real people who have merit for wanting to apply for asylum, who have actually had something really bad happen to them,” Sanchez said. “Returning them could mean they die.”

All of this is happening as border apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border reached a 20-year high during the 2020 fiscal year. The graph below shows the number of southwest border apprehensions for the last eight years. Migration numbers have been steadily growing since April 2020, when there was a lull in border crossings due to the pandemic.

Some of the immigration attorneys we talked to say these numbers can be a little misleading since they track arrests, not individuals.

According to a report put out by the American Immigration Council, many migrants are now trying to cross the border multiple times after failing – leading to a higher number of apprehensions, but not necessarily a higher number of individuals trying to get into the U.S.

One of the reasons for this, cited by the report? Title 42. The provision is creating a system in which migrants are rapidly processed at the border and sent back to Mexico, without a deportation order, making it easier and less risky for people to cross repeatedly.

Concerns over Title 42

In May 2021, citing increasing security concerns and social unrest in Haiti, the Biden administration granted temporary protected status for Haitians already in the U.S.

But the status would not apply for those who arrived in Del Rio months later. The United States’ decision to expel thousands of those migrants under Title 42 was met with protests from immigration activists and the American Civil Liberties Union.

“When Title 42 is applied and people are sent back without any sort of screening, that is arguably a violation of our own law, and also of the treaty obligations that the U.S. is party to by signing the Refugee Convention,” Schommer said.

The Trump administration cited preventing the spread of COVID-19 as the reason for invoking Title 42, but critics have argued that reason was not legitimate.

Reports that have come out since March 2020 seem to back up that criticism. In November 2021, a former official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told a congressional committee that the bulk of evidence did not support using Title 42 as a public health measure because it would not slow the spread of COVID-19.

After taking office, the Biden administration made an exemption to Title 42, halting the expulsion of unaccompanied children. But besides that exemption, his administration has largely continued to use and defend the provision.

The administration is even facing a lawsuit from immigration activists who are arguing that the government is using Title 42 as a law enforcement tool, not a public health tool. Oral arguments in that case are set to begin this month.

In the meantime, Sanchez said he’s observed migrants figure out other ways to enter the U.S.

“They’re not being allowed to present themselves to apply for asylum at the border,” he said. “They take other means because they don’t feel safe. They don’t feel secure.”

Title 42 is not the only controversial policy currently affecting migrants. The Migrant Protection Protocols, better known as the Remain in Mexico program, allows the United States Department of Homeland Security to send non-Mexican asylum seekers to Mexico while they await their hearings in U.S. immigration court. Remain in Mexico applies to migrants who are not expelled under Title 42, and are allowed to make an asylum claim.

What do you want us to explains next? Let us know in the prompt box below.

Bexar County is once again seeing more COVID-19 hospitalizations as the number of patients at area hospitals reaches nearly 900 — a 344% increase since Christmas Day.

Tuesday’s COVID-19 Numbers

Metro Health’s COVID-19 dashboard is reporting a 31% positivity rate, a 3.7% increase from the 27.3% reported last week.

The COVID-19 dashboard showed an increase of 4,238 new cases on Tuesday, with a 7-day moving average of 3,645.

ALSO ON KSAT.COM: 5 charts show COVID-19 surge in San Antonio

There were no new deaths reported Tuesday, according to the data. Seventeen deaths have been reported over the past seven days.

There are 898 COVID patients in local hospitals with 195 in ICU and 73 on ventilators. Metro Health’s dashboard shows there are 10% of staffed beds available and 66% of ventilators available.

See more of today’s COVID-19 statistics and city resources for the public here.

City health officials offer the following testing guidelines

Consider using a self-test before joining indoor gatherings with others who are not in your household.A positive self-test result means that you have an infection and should avoid indoor gatherings to reduce the risk of spreading the disease to someone else.A negative self-test result means that you may not have an infection. Repeating the test with at least 24 hours between tests will increase the confidence that you are not infected.Ask your health care provider if you need help interpreting your test results.

Click here to access more information about other city no-cost testing sites.

Also on KSAT:

Here are the COVID-19 vaccine pop-up clinics taking place around San AntonioWhere to get tested for COVID-19 in San Antonio, Bexar CountyWhere to get a COVID-19 vaccine in San Antonio

A man accused of secretly taping guests at his Kendall County vacation rental home was arrested again this week and charged with two more counts of invasive visual recording, according to the Kendall County Sheriff’s Office.

A Jay Allee, 54, was initially arrested on Nov. 20 and charged with four counts of invasive visual recording, a felony offense in the state of Texas.

According to jail records, Allee was arrested again on Sunday and charged with two more counts. He posted his $150,000 bond the same day and was released.

Records show he was also arrested for additional charges of the same offense last month.

A civil attorney for some of the victims told KSAT that more than 20 possible victims have been interviewed by criminal investigators so far.

According to the Kendall County Sheriff’s Office, Allee operated a vacation rental cabin under the name of “Cielito Lindo” in Comfort.

According to the original arrest warrant affidavit, a couple who rented the home in July said they felt uncomfortable after an interaction with Allee when he came to the cabin to welcome them. The renter told investigators that Allee made comments that he felt were suggestive including, “Be comfortable, we don’t care if you are in your pj’s or nude,” the affidavit stated.

The renter said he “immediately had a feeling there may have been a hidden camera somewhere,” so he Googled how to find hidden cameras and looked around the cabin for anything odd. He found a device that looked like an AC/DC adapter facing the bed in the bedroom and noticed a reflection on the front and a blue blinking light on the side, the affidavit states.

The renter also found a padlock on a “secret door” that was made to look like the wall. They immediately packed up and left the cabin, but the renter said the camera was discovered after his wife had been undressed in the room after she had taken a shower.

Kendall County investigators executed a search warrant on the property and found the camera device. They also seized Allee’s laptops, a tablet and phones. Investigators found more than 2,100 thumbnail images from videos that showed men and women inside the cabin. Some images showed people partially undressed, nude or involved in sexual conduct, the affidavit stated. The thumbnails also showed Allee placing the hidden camera in different locations in the bedroom, investigators said.

Investigators determined that Allee had been secretly videotaping guests at the cabin for more than a year, KCSO said, and they asked guests to come forward so they could identify the victims who were recorded.

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Gov. Greg Abbott will hold a news conference Tuesday in San Antonio with sheriffs from across the state of Texas.

According to a news release, the event will be held at 3:30 p.m. in the 9200 block of Broadway.

KSAT.com will be livestreaming the event. You can watch it in the video player above.

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