Trump Seeks To Restrict Entry to Some US Citizens And Green Card Holders

The Donald Trump government is seeking to take a step that would authorize US borders officials to deny entry to some US citizens and green card holders suspected to have contracted COVID-19.

Information obtained from a US government official reveals that the policy would restrict the return of American citizens and legal permanent residents who are considered by the government to constitute a serious public health threat.

It is gathered that the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been working on the draft policy which would be modified and enforced by the Department of Home Land Security whose official questions about the plan were first published by the New York Times on Monday to the White House.

As a result of the threat posed by the pandemic, the Trump administration has already put in place several travels and immigration bans, prohibiting nonessential travel on the Mexican and Canadian borders, restricting immigrant and work visas, and summarily dismissing tens of thousands of migrants from the Southern border.

Read Also: LASG Says It Is Ready To Introduce Health Facility Inspection Tools

It is believed that Donald Trump’s order could rely on a public health law enacted in the 19th Century and recodified during World War II, which the administration has been building on to expel most border-crossers and asylum-seekers, including unaccompanied children. The law authorizes the Surgeon General to bar the ‘introduction of persons or property’ that are capable of introducing a communicable disease into the US.

It could be recalled that in late June, Attorney Jim Lim argued before a Federal Judge that the Law could be tentatively be utilized to turn away US citizens since the statute refers to ‘persons’ and said such policy would not ‘necessarily be unconstitutional’ if done in a very narrowly tailored way to address a particular public health crisis.

Judge Carl Nicholas, who was appointed by Mr. Trump, concurred with the Justice Department that the Law’s language seems elaborate, but he, however, expressed some doubt of the administration’s argument that the law allows officials to expatriate people, including the citizens of the United States.