Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday suggested illegal immigrants are partly to blame for fueling cattle infections in Mexico that have contributed to high beef prices in the United States. 

In recent months, U.S. consumers have seen a sharp uptick in beef prices due partly to screwworm outbreaks that have affected cattle imports from Mexico. 

Over the weekend, Bessent argued South American migrants who made their way to the U.S. under the Biden administration bore some responsibility for the screwworm outbreaks. Migrants brought infected cattle with them on the journey, the treasury secretary said, carrying the flesh-eating parasite to North America, and destabilizing the beef market, a critical U.S. import from Mexico. 

“Because of the mass immigration, a disease that had been we’ve been rid of in North America made its way up through South America as these migrants — they brought some of their cattle with them,” Bessent said during the Fox News Show Sunday Morning Futures. 

“So part of the problem is we’ve had to shut the border to Mexican beef because of this disease called the screwworm, so we’re not going to let that get into our supply chain,” he added. “It’s a very important product, and