As Prepared for Delivery
Today’s announcement is just the latest in a long line of bold, decisive actions the President has taken to protect Americans from the coronavirus spreading across our borders.
In January, within two weeks of China’s notifying WHO about the virus and with only 45 cases in China, we began screening travelers from Wuhan.
Then, over time, as the outbreak evolved, the President restricted travel from China, Iran, and Europe. Our health experts say that these measures have been truly effective at slowing the virus’s spread to our shores.
Just think about this: Italy and the United States both saw their first travel-related case of the coronavirus around the exact same time, the last week of January.
And yet we have had precious time to continue our work around vaccines, therapeutics, and other preparations—while Italy has, tragically, been overwhelmed with critical patients for several weeks now.
The President today is taking action to slow the spread of infectious diseases via our border. Under Section 362 of the Public Health Service Act, the CDC is suspending the entry of certain persons into the United States, because of the public health threat that their entry into the United States represents.
This order applies to persons coming from Mexico and Canada who are seeking to enter the country illegally and who would normally be held in a congregate setting like a Customs and Border Protection station. It does not apply to U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.
During this pandemic, a number of health challenges arise when illegal immigrants arrive at our northern and southern borders and are taken into immigration custody.
We’re talking about significant numbers of illegal immigrants: From this past October through February, DHS has processed more than 21,000 inadmissible aliens at the northern border, and more than 151,000 inadmissible aliens at the southern border.
CBP facilities were never designed to hold large numbers of people and to protect agents and migrants from infection during a pandemic, nor to treat them for a novel virus if large numbers are infected.
When held at border facilities, these migrants risk spreading the virus to other migrants, to CBP agents and border healthcare workers, and even the United States’ population as a whole.
In such circumstances, the kind of social distancing measures the CDC and the President have recommended are simply not possible.
On top of that, any resources that we are using to reduce the risk of infection among CBP agents, healthcare workers, and migrants in these facilities are drawing on an American healthcare system that is already fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
That is why the President and his administration are taking these important steps to keep Americans and our immigration system safe from these health risks, as part of our whole-of-government approach to combating the coronavirus.
Thank you, Mr. President, for the work you have been doing throughout this crisis to slow the spread of the coronavirus and to keep our country safe.
