Tipsheet

U.S. Announces COVID Travel Restrictions to Stay, Even as Illegal Immigrants Stream Across Southern Border

Citing concerns over the Delta variant of the Wuhan coronavirus, federal officials announced Monday that there would be no changes to longstanding U.S. travel restrictions that have kept most international travelers from entering the United States.  

"Given where we are today with the Delta variant, the United States will maintain existing travel restrictions at this point," explained an official, according to an exclusive Reuters report. "Driven by the Delta variant, cases are rising here at home, particularly among those who are unvaccinated and appear likely [to] continue to increase in the weeks ahead."

The United States currently bars most non-U.S. citizens who within the last 14 days have been in the United Kingdom, the 26 Schengen nations in Europe without border controls, Ireland, China, India, South Africa, Iran and Brazil.

via Reuters

Yet illegal immigrants, whose previous whereabouts and COVID or vaccine status are unknown, are still streaming across the border at historic rates as the Biden administration fails to address the crisis their policies created.

Just last week, U.S. officials declared that America's land borders with Canada and Mexico would remain closed, apparently only to legal border-crossers, as pictures and footage of illegal immigrants amassed along the U.S.-Mexico border showed American officials letting in untested migrants by the hundreds.

The vetting process — or utter lack thereof — by which illegal immigrants are allowed across the southern border is woefully lax compared to how air travelers — including U.S. citizens — to the United States are screened.

Current State Department guidance requires "all air passengers entering the United States (including U.S. citizens and Legal Permanent Residents) to present a negative COVID-19 test, taken within three calendar days of departure or proof of recovery from the virus within the last 90 days" and "airlines must deny boarding of passengers who do not provide documentation of a negative test or recovery."

As Katie noted last week, "cases of Wuhan coronavirus are exploding" at the U.S.-Mexico border as "illegal immigrants aren't being properly tested by the federal government, whose officials are putting them on buses and planes to destinations around the country."

If the Biden administration and federal health experts are so concerned about an increase in Wuhan coronavirus cases and the Delta variant, a great way to slow that spread would be for the border to be truly closed, not just to legal crossers, and for the government to stop sending potentially contagious illegal immigrants on planes and buses to other parts of the country.