Isn’t it something how the Biden administration can become very animated over forcing “legal” travelers to have a negative Covid test one day before traveling and impose mandatory quarantine periods on those travelers while the southern border remains a hot mess?
Will migrants crossing the border illegally be asked to show proof of their negative Covid test to fight the Omicron variant and then be asked to quarantine before they’re simply released among the population? Of course not! Biden has no interest in slowing the spread or imposing these burdens on illegal travelers breaking the law. However, if you legally board a plane in France, you may soon be expected to forcibly quarantine yourself for 7 days whether you’re vaccinated or not, and have proof of a negative Covid test.
It’s also quite something how much hysteria there is over the Omicron variant, yet none of these people seem to be acting too quickly while they take days to mull over new restrictions:
The Biden administration is preparing stricter testing requirements for all travelers entering the United States, including returning Americans, to curb the spread of the potentially dangerous omicron variant, according to three federal health officials.
As part of an enhanced winter covid strategy Biden is expected to announce Thursday, U.S. officials would require everyone entering the country to be tested one day before boarding flights, regardless of their vaccination status or country of departure. Administration officials are also considering a requirement that all travelers get retested within three to five days of arrival.
In addition, they are debating a controversial proposal to require all travelers, including U.S. citizens, to self-quarantine for seven days, even if their test results are negative. Those who flout the requirements might be subject to fines and penalties, the first time such penalties would be linked to testing and quarantine measures for travelers in the United States.
The double-standard hypocrisy over imposing onerous restrictions on vacationers or citizens returning from abroad while ignoring the thousands of individuals pouring over the southern border every week is laughable, if not downright derelict. If you come by plane, you better show your papers or you’ll be denied access.
Walk across the river with no documentation whatsoever? No problem, come on in and we’ll send you by bus or plane domestically to the region of your choice. We’ll get this Covid stuff straightened out later, here’s a mask and hand sanitizer. Truly remarkable stuff.
If the Biden administration doesn’t take it seriously that thousands of people can flood across the border, bringing any kind of disease, including Covid, and then be released into the country, how can we take any of their fear-mongering or faux outrage over Omicron seriously?
The numbers from the border are nothing to sneeze at, so to speak, with almost 200,000 border crossings in the month of October, that we know of, it’s a serious gap in Covid coverage:
But there is no indication the administration is rethinking its stance on testing illegal migrants who cross the border, despite border officials encountering 164,303 individuals at the border in October, the most recent month for which data is available. That number does not include “gotaways,” the number of individuals who were able to sneak across the border without being arrested. The U.S. Border Patrol estimates more than 400,000 such individuals have illegally entered the country in the last 12 months.
Almost 12,000 border patrol employees have tested positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic began, with 51 having died from the virus.
If it’s enough to mandate vaccines and tests on American citizens and foreign citizens traveling legally, surely some imposition can be made on the people breaking laws to enter the country if this administration actually cares. Instead, there are two standards. One for legal travel, one for illegal travel.