By: Alina Dang
Currently, President Donald Trump is considering new immigration rules that would temporarily block an American citizen or legal permanent resident from returning to the United States from a foriegn country if the authorities believe the person may be infected with the coronavirus.
In the past few months, the coronavirus pandemic started getting out of hand. Due to the risks of allowing Covid-19 to spread from foriegn countries with many confirmed cases., President Trump had imposed rules that did not allow any foreigners to enter the United States. However, the rules do not apply to either American citizens and permanent residents.
If the proposal of banning everyone from entering the U.S from foreign countries is passed, then the government has the ability to block both citizens and legal residents from crossing the border into the United States if an official has a reason to believe that the person is infected with Covid-19. The proposal relies on the “existing legal authorities of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to protect the country,” states the New York Times.
The government has the power to conduct extra health screenings of American citizens and can potentially impose quarantines if an American citizen returns to the United States from a hot zone. Immigration officials are allowed to deny entry to people based on national security issues.
According to the New York Times, Michael Shear and Caitlin Dickerson wrote, “The new rule appears to apply to all points of entry into the United States, including at airports and along both the northern and the southern borders. In particular, the draft could affect the border with Mexico, where many American citizens and legal residents cross back and forth frequently.”
The draft of the proposal clearly states that any order blocking citizens and legal permanent residents must “include appropriate protections to ensure that no constitutional rights are infringed.” It also says that citizens and legal residents cannot be blocked as an entire class of people.
Link to Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/10/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-border.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage