President Biden will move forward with a vaccine mandate on nonresident, essential travelers crossing U.S. land borders, which includes truck drivers, emergency personnel, and government officials.
The mandate takes effect Jan. 22 and follows the administration’s decision to open land and ferry ports to nonessential travelers who are fully vaccinated earlier this month.
U.S. citizens and permanent residents can still enter the country even if they are not vaccinated but they will be subject to testing.
The administration’s decision to include truckers is particularly worrying given the supply chain concerns and shortage of drivers.
"The US is already facing unprecedented supply chain disruptions and delays due to many factors, including significant labor shortages, production shutdowns, a shortage of raw materials, and pent-up consumer demand," the American Trucking Association told the administration earlier this month, according to AP. "Our data shows that a vaccine mandate may very well further cripple the supply chain throughout the country by forcing up to 13% of drivers to leave the industry entirely.”
At this point, Biden is intentionally making the supply chain issues worse. https://t.co/TXZ9MAlnv7
— Matt Rinaldi (@MattRinaldiTX) November 23, 2021
Critics point out the mandate is also hypocritical given the administration’s attitude towards those entering the U.S. illegally.
Nearly 2 million illegal immigrants who crossed into the U.S. this year have no such requirement. Insanity. https://t.co/6KkTSZ1zSz
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) November 23, 2021
What about illegals Joe https://t.co/gHmNF9qC85
— Robert Davi (@RobertJohnDavi) November 24, 2021
Blue collar truck drivers will be forced to get the jab
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) November 23, 2021
Unvaccinated illegal border crossers will be welcomed with open arms https://t.co/fXUBvuKAT5
But illegal aliens can come on through.
— Michael Quinn Sullivan???? (@MQSullivan) November 24, 2021
And those supply chain issues are about to get a whole lot worse. https://t.co/f4E1PL3u7f
The order will also apply to essential travelers entering the U.S. by ferry.
