20,000 Migrants Expelled from US Along Southern Border

20,000 Migrants Expelled from US along the southern border according to President Donald Trump.

President Trump announced that officials on the southern border expelled 20,000 unauthorized migrant adults, families and children from the U.S. due to a broad public health measure ordered in late March.

By citing an emergency Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) order, border officials sent over 14,000 migrants back to their home countries in April alone, that’s 90 percent of adults, families and unaccompanied children encountered by Border Control. They are in addition to the 6,400 had been expelled due to the order in late March.

The Trump administration is arguing that the CDC directive is needed for containing the spread of the virus in the US. The directive cites a World War 2 era public health law.

20,000 Migrants Expelled from US along the southern border according to President Donald Trump.

Immigration attorney Thelma Garcia objects to the practice. “There are still problems in Central America. People are still fleeing. Once they cross the border into the U.S., nobody knows anything about them because they are deported so quickly. And I’m sure there’s a lot of people in there with some good claims that should not be removed,” Garcia said to CBS News. “But they are using the pandemic as an excuse not to follow the immigration and asylum laws.”

Currently, the US Covid-19 death rate is far higher than Mexico’s. As of noon on May 8th, the US had a death rate of 23 per 100,000 in contrast to Mexico’s rate of 2.3 per 100,000.

Latin America, in general, is not yet suffering from Covid-19 infections and deaths to the extent that the US has, which may support Ms. Garcia’s claim that the pandemic is being used to accomplish the administration’s immigration goals.

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