President Donald Trump is extending border rules barring the entry of people who might be carrying China’s coronavirus disease, according to the New York Times.
The rule is likely to block nearly all blue-collar illegal migration from poor southern nations, especially if China’s disease sparks a mass migration toward U.S. jobs and healthcare.
The rule was first set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on March 21 for 30 days. It was extended on April 20, the NYT said, adding:
[A] new order under review by several government agencies is intended to extend the restrictions indefinitely. Once issued by Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the director of the C.D.C., the border restrictions would stay in effect until he decides the virus no longer poses a threat.
…
“I am extending the duration of the order until I determine that the danger of further introduction of Covid-19 into the United States has ceased to be a danger to the public health,” a copy of the draft order obtained by The New York Times reads.
While C.D.C. officials will review the dangers posed by the virus to the American public every 30 days, the new order essentially means that the border will be closed to immigrants until Mr. Redfield explicitly says otherwise — not the other way around.
The report was welcomed by Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies. He said, via Twitter:
“Border Patrol arrests of aliens with the Wuhan coronavirus make clear the logic and need for CBP to continue to exercise its Title 42 public health authority. As long as you have to stay home, smugglers and migrants should, too.”
Combined with the economic turmoil caused by the coronavirus crash and reforms border enforcement, the rule has almost completely ended cross-border asylum efforts. The Washington Post reported May 13:
Citing the threat to public health from the coronavirus, the Trump administration has suspended most due-process rights for migrants, including children and asylum seekers, while “expelling” more than 20,000 unauthorized border-crossers to Mexico under a provision of U.S. code known as Title 42.…The statistics show that USCIS conducted just 59 screening interviews between March 21 and Wednesday under the Convention Against Torture, effectively the only category of protection in the United States that is still available to those who express a fear of grave harm if rejected. USCIS rejected 54 applicants and three cases are pending, according to the data, which does not indicate the nationality of those screened or other demographic information.
However, migrants and the cartel-backed coyotes are reviving efforts to sneak migrants through the border zone.
“Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents disrupted a human smuggling attempt involving 25 migrants in a tractor-trailer rig. The interdiction occurred at the Interstate 35 checkpoint located between Laredo and San Antonio, Texas,” Breitbart News reported May 15.
The curbs will help prevent migrants from taking some of the jobs needed by millions of unemployed Americans.
However, Trump’s administration has yet to curb the inflow of white-collar migrants.
On April 22, Trump announced that his agency deputies would review the wide variety of visa worker programs.
These programs allow businesses to keep a population of roughly 1.5 million foreign contractors in white-collar jobs, and at least 400,000 migrants in seasonal blue-collar and pink-collar jobs.
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