“Career professionals at the CDC are working on a comprehensive approach to pandemic control both now and in the future,” an administration official with knowledge of ongoing interviews told CNN. “The regulation is in draft form and subject to (change). This is an ongoing process and any reporting on this would be extremely premature.”
CNN reached out to the CDC and the Homeland Security department, who declined to comment.
A draft memo received by the Times states that any move to block citizens and legal permanent residents “should include appropriate protections to ensure no constitutional rights are infringed” and would “apply only in the rarest of circumstances.”
Earlier travel restrictions submitted by the administration during the pandemic have excluded U.S. citizens and legal residents. For example, the US restricts non-essential travel to land ports of entry with Canada and Mexico. Americans regularly cross borders for various reasons, including work, school attendance, family visits, and tourism.
Any move aimed at U.S. citizens and legal residents, in particular, is likely to pose legal challenges. In the wake of Monday’s Times report Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union immediately called the move “unconstitutional.”
“The Trump administration has implemented one border ban after another – most recently on children and asylum seekers – using COVID-19 as an excuse, while abysmically failing to bring the virus under control in the United States,” Omar Jadwat said. , director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, in a statement.
“The infamous order would be another big mistake in a year that has already seen far too much,” Jadwat added.
CNN’s Nikki Carvajal contributed to this report.
.
