U.S. to swiftly turn back people entering from Mexico illegally
The Trump administration plans to immediately turn back all asylumseekers and other foreigners attempting to enter the United States from Mexico illegally, saying the nation cannot risk allowing the coronavirus to spread through detention facilities and border patrol agents, four administration officials said.
The administration officials said the ports of entry would remain open to U.S. citizens, green-card holders and foreigners with proper documentation. Some foreigners would be blocked, including Europeans currently subject to earlier travel restrictions imposed by the administration. The points of entry will also be open to commercial traffic.
But under the new rule, set to be announced in the next 48 hours, border patrol agents would immediately return anyone to Mexico — without any detainment and without any due process — who attempts to cross the southwestern border between the legal ports of entry. They would not be held for any length of time in a U.S. facility.
Although they advised that details could change before the announcement, administration officials said the measure was needed to avert what they fear could be a systemwide outbreak of the coronavirus inside detention facilities along the border. Such an outbreak could spread quickly through the immigrant population and could infect large numbers of border patrol agents, leaving the southwestern border defenses weakened, the officials argued.
Administration officials say many of the migrants who cross the border are already sick or lack sufficient documents detailing their medical history.
Confirmed cases of the virus in Mexico stand at 82, compared with around 5,600 in the United States and more than 470 in Canada. But President Donald Trump has suggested closing the border many times in the past, hoping to crack down on illegal immigration and press Mexico to do more to curb the northward flow of migrants. Long before the coronavirus outbreak, he admonished his top Homeland Security advisers about the need to stop illegal immigration at the border by saying he wants to “shut it down.” In the spring of 2019, when migrants from Central America were surging, the president repeatedly threatened to shut the border, offering to pardon a top border official for doing so.