Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it would extend indefinitely the public health order it used to close the borders of the country to illegal refugees, including asylum seekers and unaccompanied children.
Officials have used the regulation to rapidly deport most border crossers to Mexico, Canada or their home countries without appropriate paperwork and to bypass immigration, refugee and anti-trafficking laws regulating migrant processing. In April and the last 11 days of March, over 20,000 migrants were removed from the southern US border under the order.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield wrote in the order, as per Quinn Owen's ABC News story, that the entire country has "mobilized to save lives by limiting face to face contact and reserving healthcare resources for those who need them most."
Until the CDC head determines that the risk of further spread of the virus into US soil "no longer poses a risk to public health," Redfield's order will remain in effect. The CDC disclosed it is looking to evaluate the decision every 30 days, ABC News stated.
The Administration of President Donald Trump released the initial 30-day order in March, and it was extended in April for another month. Notably, the latest version has no definite end date, although it stated the CDC will assess public health information every 30 days to make sure it's still relevant.
Trump officials have come to the defense of the measure in the face of negative feedback from human rights activists who claim that the government is using health as an excuse for denying immigrants the right to seek asylum and enforcing immigration rules aimed at appealing to Trump's supporters in an election period.
On Tuesday, 40 public medical experts, including former officials of the CDC, wrote to Redfield and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar lambasting what they describe is the government's specious public health rationale and called on officials to scrap the order.
Trump has justified his bold anti-immigration platform, largely formed by adviser Stephen Miller, by invoking government health policies to widen his strict immigration mandate during the global health turmoil.
The US Department of Homeland Security also disclosed Tuesday that it would continue to restrict non-essential travel through the nation's borders with Canada and Mexico. The prohibitions do not ban commercial traffic or impact American citizens and permanent residents.
While it is not yet clear how many have tried to seek those protections recently, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has expelled close to 21,000 migrants under the CDC order so far.
