For Europeans hoping to vacation in the United States anytime soon, a piece of advice: Entering through Laredo, Texas, might be easier than making it through JFK.
Reuters reports that the Biden administration will require tourists to provide proof of vaccination to enter the country because it’s the only way to safely boost the tourism industry. That’s a far more stringent standard than the White House is applying to those seeking to enter the country illegally via Mexico. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said this week that the administration’s border policy is “rooted in preventing the introduction of contagious diseases into the interior of the United States.”
That statement flies in the face of reality. The Texas border town of McAllen declared a local disaster this week after 1,500 of the 7,000 migrants released into the city by the Biden administration tested positive for COVID-19.
In July alone, 210,000 migrants crossed into the country from Mexico. That 21-year record comes as Dr. Anthony Fauci pushes for Americans to re-adopt extreme COVID precautions and warns that “things are going to get worse.”
Things are already getting worse on the border.
According to the assistant secretary for border and immigration policy, David Shahoulian, the rate of positive tests among migrants crossing the border has “increased significantly in recent weeks.” Those migrants are getting Border Patrol officers sick, Shahoulian said, leading “to increasing numbers of Customs and Border Protection personnel being isolated and hospitalized” even as vaccination rates increase for officers, suggesting some suffer from breakthrough infections. They are surely getting American civilians sick as well.
The Biden administration’s encouraging decision to delay the repeal of Title 42—which gives Border Patrol agents authority to immediately turn away most migrants—was an acknowledgment of how dire things have gotten, but it doesn’t go far enough. Ditching the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy retards the effectiveness of any future plans by the White House to inoculate migrants at the border, given the fact that the Centers for Disease Control says the vaccine takes roughly two weeks to work. Overcrowded holding facilities will continue to serve as a vector for disease.
The Department of Homeland Security disclosed that 30 percent of all aliens in detention refuse a coronavirus vaccine. CBP holding facilities sit at around 700 percent capacity. Those kinds of numbers would bring CDC director Rochelle Walensky to tears if they were citizens packed into a Florida bar.
For all of President Joe Biden’s talk about how real “patriots” take the appropriate measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus, he seems uninterested in doing his part. Biden asks American businesses to wait for a badly needed tourism boost while his border policy exacerbates the need for public-health restrictions.
The Biden White House has tried to pin growing COVID numbers on Republican governors who have ended restrictions in their states. He says governors need to “get out of the way” of the government’s COVID response. It turns out the southern border is the only place the Biden administration is relaxed about the threat posed by rising COVID numbers.
Our thoughts on Biden’s selective concern were perhaps best encapsulated by Florida governor Ron DeSantis. “Why don’t you get this border secure,” DeSantis told the president. “Until you do that, I don’t want to hear a blip about COVID from you.”