The Trump administration is considering a measure that would allow U.S. border officials to deny access to certain U.S. citizens and green cardholders suspected of being infected with the coronavirus, a policy that would extend immigration and travel restrictions already in place during the pandemic.
According to a federal government official familiar with the plans, the policy would limit the return of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents who are considered by authorities as a potential threat to public health by spreading the coronavirus in ‘e FS. The official said the measures are part of a proposal that has yet to be approved by the administration.
A team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been working on a draft policy that could be changed and would be enforced by border authorities at the Department of Homeland Security. CDC and Homeland Security officials referred questions about the plans, which were first reported by The New York Times on Monday, to the White House.
A public health measure that would ban U.S. citizens and green cardholders from entering the country would raise legal concerns and potential legal challenges. The Trump administration, citing the threat of the pandemic, has already imposed several travel and immigration restrictions, banning non-essential travel on Mexican and Canadian borders; restrictions on immigrants and work visas; and expelled tens of thousands of migrants from the southern border. But it has still limited the influx of American citizens and green cardholders.
Such a measure could rely on a public health law that was first introduced in the late 19th century and re-codified in World War II that the administration was reliant on expelling most border guards and asylum seekers, including unaccompanied children. It authorizes the Surgical General to restrict the “introduction of persons as property”, which poses the danger of an infectious disease in the US
End of June, Attorney at Law Jean Lin argued before a federal judge that the law could hypothetically be used to dissuade American citizens because the statute refers to “persons” and said that such a policy would not be “necessarily unconstitutional” if implemented in a “very narrowly adjusted way to a particular tackling public health crisis. “
The judge, Carl Nichols, who was appointed by Mr. Trump, agreed with the Department of Justice that the language of the law seems broad, but he seemed skeptical about the administration’s argument that the law officials allow expelling people, including U.S. citizens.
“It seems to me, however, that there is a difference between the access of persons, including American citizens,” and “authorization of the removal of persons who have made it into the physical United States,” Nichols Lin said.
Ben Tracy, Sara Cook and Arden Farhi contributed to this report.
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