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For more than 150 years, the United States and Canada have shared what is commonly called the longest undefended border in the world. And yet in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, reports emerged that the United States was intending to place military troops near the border as part of Washingtons plan to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said such a move would be a mistake. After several days of confusion, Trudeau announced the U.S. had, at least temporarily, backed off on any plans to send troops in response to fears that infected people could illegally cross the border.

Whats behind this threat by the United States to militarize its northern border? For the answer, look to Americas southern border.

Leaked documents revealed that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had requested the Department of Defense deploy more than 1,500 troops to both the southern and northern borders to support border enforcement during the coronavirus pandemic.

Specifically, CBP had requested 1,000 personnel on the northern border and 540 personnel on the southern border. The 540 personnel would be added to the 5,200 troops already present at the U.S.-Mexico border that followed President Donald Trumps declaration of a national emergency over undocumented immigration in early 2019.

The leaked memo referred to illegal entries having the potential to spread infectious disease. The memo did not clearly explain how these troops were going to be used only that they will not conduct civilian law enforcement activities. The conditions of the use of force were also unclear.

Read more: Keep on trucking: Trucks must keep moving across Canada-U.S. border amid coronavirus

Canada and the United States had already agreed to close their land border to non-essential travel as a way to stop the spread of COVID-19. That decision did not mean the border would be entirely closed the flow of goods by land was vital for both economies and would not be stopped. Cross-border commutes related to grocery shopping, studies and work were still allowed as well.

Canadas diplomatic response to the American attempt to militarize its northern border, generally polite but at times tense, is not surprising given the asymmetrical Canada-U.S. relationship.

In 1969, Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau famously said that living next to the United States was in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly or temperate the beast, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.

Because of this structural asymmetry, Canada-U.S. relations dramatically changed after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Despite Canadian efforts to meet U.S. security demands against terrorism, Paul Cellucci, the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, bluntly stated in 2003 that security trumps trade.

And yet both national economies are deeply interdependent. In the early 2000s, 87 per cent of Canadas trade went to the U.S. and about one-quarter of Americas trade came to Canada. In 2018, U.S. exports to Canada accounted for 18 per cent of its overall exports, totalling US$363.8 billion, while Canadas exports to the U.S. had a partner share of 75 per cent, totalling US$337 billion.

Several Canada-U.S. cross-border regions are integrated (infrastructures, economies, tourism, etc.), but U.S. prevalence of national security has dominated the border agenda since 2001.

The metaphor of the Mexicanization of the U.S.-Canada border was used to reflect the primacy of this security agenda on both Mexican and Canadian borders.

The traditional U.S. security focus on drug and illegal immigration on the southern border was renewed after 2001 but terrorism and weapons of mass destruction also became one of the key national security priorities, which also applied to the northern border.

In this new context, U.S. border workers contributed to make both borders more uniform: CBP officials who are trained and on duty on the Mexican border later move to the Canadian border. They bring with them the corporate culture of CBP from the southern border values, beliefs and behaviours tainted with U.S.-Mexico border challenges.

In parallel, a longstanding collaboration between CBP and the Canadian Border Service Agency (CBSA) exists. But it is essentially focused on U.S border monitoring and law enforcement, which is very similar to CBPs management of the southern border with (or without) Mexican authorities.

The Mexicanization of the northern border conveys the idea that the Canada-U.S. bilateral relationship is far from being unique or special. The U.S. increasingly sees Canada as just another border where national security threats emerge without distinction.

This imbalance between security and trade over the last two decades has contributed to numerous regional and local initiatives in order to demonstrate that security and trade imperatives can co-exist.

But the leaked CBP memo shows there is no longer a distinction between the southern and the northern borders. Both are seen as a threat to the safety and security of the United States.

It also shows the worlds longest undefended border is just a fig leaf an egalitarian symbol in order to hide the deep imbalance between the two countries.

See the rest here:
Why Trump tried to use the coronavirus crisis to 'Mexicanize' the U.S.-Canada border - The Conversation CA

Indeed, politics and world events were like quicksand beneath our feet. Abroad, the Syrian civil war raged, Iraq teetered, and the emergence of ISISthe successor to the al-Qaeda affiliate that took root in Iraq after our invasiondrew the United States back into a new counterterrorism campaign. At home, Republicans fixated on a toxic stew of issues with loose, if not specious, national-security connections: an insistence on declaring war against radical Islam, ceaseless investigations into Benghazi that spilled over into investigations of Hillary Clintons email practices, and demagoguing of refugee admissions and illegal immigration into the United States.

Donald Trump drafted on these dark currents as he launched his presidential campaign in 2015, tapping into Americas post-9/11 fears of a faceless other and the frustrations of Americans who had been promised great victories in Iraq and Afghanistan but found only quagmires. Instead of reckoning with the ways that we might have gotten the response to 9/11 wrong, Trump scapegoated enemies within: a black president, brown-skinned immigrants, Muslim refugees. Social media mainlined these fears into tens of millions of American households, and made us an easy mark for a Russian influence campaign.

In retrospect, the clearest harbinger from the Obama years of the future were now living in came in the fall of 2014. At a time when the American people were in a full-blown panic about ISIS, in the aftermath of the tragic beheading of four American hostages, we were confronted with the outbreak of an infectious disease, Ebola, that threatened to kill millions of people. By deploying the U.S. military to West Africa, recruiting dozens of countries to contribute health-care workers and equipment, and integrating Americas public-health and national-security infrastructure under unified direction, Obama was able to lead a coalition that stamped out the Ebola outbreak close to its source. It was a high-water mark of Obamas international leadership.

But the episode haunted Obama. He regularly told foreign visitors that fears of a pandemic kept him awake at night. By the time Obamas presidency ended, he had established a directorate on global-health security at the National Security Council, developed a playbook for a future administration to use to combat pandemics, and used a Cabinet-level homeland-security exercise with incoming Trump officials to put them through the decision-making process of responding to an outbreak. But the president coming into office was intent not on building on Obamas legacy, but on dismantling it.

In 2019, I taught a course at UCLA on presidential rhetoric and American foreign policy. One of the speeches I had my students read was Bushs address to Congress after 9/11, which still stands out as an exceptional piece of speechwriting. Just a couple of years younger than I was when I found those words so stirring, my students read the text as if it came from a different planet. Had the United States really made its entire national purpose a war against a group of terrorists? I asked them to list what they believed were the most pressing issues facing the country. Climate change topped the list. Economic inequality, student debt, structural racism, and a host of other issues filled it out. Not a single student mentioned terrorism. The generational appeal of Bernie Sandersso out of step with the Democratic establishment Id been a part ofwas obvious in that room.

Excerpt from:
The 9/11 Era Is Over - The Atlantic

People thinking this is a good time to try to get into the United States should think again.

The United States currently has the third highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world. Only China and Italy have more. The United States has more than 55,000 cases, withmore than700 deaths, and it is still in the initial phase of the epidemic.

In addition to the risk of getting sick, the U.S. is taking drastic actions that are particularly hard on foreign visitors and undocumented immigrants.

New authority for the CDC director

The focus on fighting the pandemic includes the border.

The Department of Health and Human Services just published an interim final rule effective immediately that authorizes the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to suspend the entry of aliens from foreign countries and places he designates.

The director can issue such a suspension when he determines that:

(The term place refers to any location specified by the director, including any carrier, and carriermeans a ship, aircraft, train, road vehicle, or other means of transportation.)

The United States has entered into agreements with Canada and Mexico to limit all non-essential travel across shared borders. Non-essential means travel that is considered tourism or is recreational in nature.

CBP will no longer detain illegal immigrants apprehended at the border in its holding facilities. It will return them to the country they entered from Canada or Mexico. If this is not possible, CBP will return them to their country of origin.

According to Mexicos foreign Secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico has only agreed to do this if the illegal crossers being returned are Mexicans or are from Central America.

CBP will take aliens apprehended after making an illegal entry to the nearest port of entry, fingerprint them, and then run their prints through government computer records. If they are not wanted by the police or a government agency, they will be released on the foreign side of the port of entry.

Of course, they can go to another section of the border after they are released and make another illegal entry, but 8 U.S.C. 1325 makes a second illegal entry a felony. The penalty, if convicted, is a fine and/or jail for up to two years.

Aliens in detention

8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(1)(A)(i) makes aliens who have a communicable disease of public health significance inadmissible. This means that aliens in detention who were apprehended at or near the border would have to be tested to see if they have COVID-19, and the ones who do could not be released unless their inadmissibility is waived under 8 U.S.C. 1182(g).

Exclusion grounds do not apply to aliens who are already in the United States.

The waiver is only available to aliens who have a specified relationship with a United States citizen, an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, an alien who has been issued an immigrant visa, or they are self-petitioners under the Violence Against Women Act.

Risk of contracting COVID-19 in detention facilities

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and 14 other Democratic representatives sent a letter to Chad Wolf, the acting Secretary of DHS, in which they ask him, among other things, how he plans to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks at immigration detention facilities.

According to Dr. Homer Venters, former chief medical officer of the New York City Jail System, People with risk factors for serious complications and death cannot be protected inside jails, prisons, and immigration detention centers.

If the White House Coronavirus Guidelines for America were to be followed, older detainees would be kept in isolation and the rest would be held in groups of no more than 10 people; but it seems quite unlikely that DHS will follow these guidelines at its immigration detention centers, where space is already at a premium.

Very few aliens will be able to apply for asylum

Asylum is likely to be the only relief available to most undocumented aliens, but the eligibility provision,8 USC 1158(b)(1)(A), states that aliens who establish that they are eligible may be granted asylum. This means it is a matter of discretion, and immigration judges are not likely to grant discretionary relief that would permit aliens who have a deadly, contagious disease to remain in the United States.

In any case, few undocumented aliens will be able to get an asylum hearing.

Although most immigration courts have not been closed yet, they are only hearing detained cases. Hearings scheduled for aliens waiting in Mexico pursuant to theMigrant Protection Protocol have been cancelled.

The National Association of Immigration Judges, the American Federation of Government Employees, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association have asked the Department of Justice to close all of the immigration courts.

USCIS also accepts asylum applications, but USCIS has closed its offices.

Undocumented aliens would be wise to stay out of the United States.

Nolan Rappaportwas detailed to the House Judiciary Committee as an executive branch immigration law expert for three years. He subsequently served as an immigration counsel for the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims for four years. Prior to working on the Judiciary Committee, he wrote decisions for the Board of Immigration Appeals for 20 years. Follow him on Twitter@NolanR1or athttps://nolanrappaport.blogspot.com.

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Undocumented aliens should stay away as COVID-19 rages in the US | TheHill - The Hill

While its all-hands-on-deck fighting the invasion of an alien virus, its an ideal time to fight our continuing invasion of aliens, too.

The Wall Street Journal reports, Hospitals in parts of New York City have become so full of critically ill patients that they have steered ambulances elsewhere. And hospitals in pandemic epicenters have passed a tipping point in the fight against the new coronavirus.

John Milne, with Washingtons Providence St. Joseph Health, agreed. The companys Swedish Issaquah Campus hospital has run out of beds for incoming COVID-19 patients. Were on the threshold of being overwhelmed.

Lewis Kaplan, president of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, told the Washington Post, We are now on crisis footing. What you take as first-come, first-served medicine is not where we are. We are now facing some difficult choices in how we apply medical resources.

If thats not a crisis, what is? Its a perfect occasion to reestablish U.S. sovereignty and the power of immigration law.

President Trump should issue an executive order governing the distribution of China Flu relief that puts U.S. citizens first. States that pledge to limit emergency room slots, ICU beds and ventilators to U.S. citizens will go to the top of the list for aid.

Prioritizing citizens over lawbreakers will be called cruel by moral exhibitionists. The same conspirators supporting illegal alien sanctuaries. That blatant obstruction of justice has allowed illegal aliens to repeatedly kill citizens on the streets. Its time to draw a line before the mere presence of an illegal kills citizens in the ICU.

Betsy McCaughey found, In NYC, 1 out of every 4 people with a confirmed case has been hospitalized and 44 percent of them have needed a ventilator. Back in 2015 New York was 16,000 ventilators short in the event of an epidemic. New York is still thousands short today.

Rationing hospital beds and ventilators is currently a topic of serious discussion. Lugubrious Gov. Andrew Cuomo vented his wrath at the suggestion we exhume the economy and let younger people work, My mother is not expendable. Your mother is not expendable. No one should be talking about social Darwinism for the sake of the stock market.

What I want to see is Sanctuary Cuomo telling his mom ventilator rationing means theres no room in the ICU for her because a younger illegal was deemed more likely to survive the Kung Flu.

In Washington state, age and existing disease will be used to determine who gets a ventilator. Medical organizations paralyzed by political correctness are considering using a random lottery, only this time the Mega Millions prize is four weeks on a ventilator.

Second prize is a pillow and Fentanyl.

The New York Times quotes Christopher McCabe, of the Institute of Health Economics in Canada. Theres no perfect way to choose who gets lifesaving treatment. At times like these, society may be more forgiving of utilitarian decision making.

Putting citizens first is both rational and utilitarian.

Federalism means states will determine rationing criteria. What Trump should demand is the first decision point be geography. If you arent a U.S. citizen or Green Card holder, then its time to head home for healthcare.

Being the ER for Latin America is a luxury we can no longer afford.

This order would put political pressure on sanctuary states to explain to families why Pedro got the ventilator and PawPaw didnt. Sanctuary state residents may have previously downplayed murders by illegals as a byproduct of wrong-place-wrong-time bad luck. Being told your family suffers from wrong-disease-wrong-time by a state functionary should end their passivity for all time.

States compliant with Real ID drivers licenses can use that for verification. States without can use passports, birth certificates or some other method approved by the Trump administration.

Trump could soften the blow by offering to fly the illegals entire family home if they agree to never return. And to prove Im not entirely heartless, the flight doesnt have to be on Spirit Airlines. I hear United currently has plenty of excess capacity.

The point is during this crisis, U.S. citizens who play by the rules should have absolute priority over all the sad stories and claims of abuse by people who broke the law to enter our country. They gambled when they crossed the border and now its time to collect their bets.

Michael Shannon (mandate.mmpr@gmail.com) is a columnist for the Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

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Shannon: Perfect time for Trump to fight the other alien invasion - Daily Commercial

Mozambican authorities in the countrys western province of Tete have buried the bodies of Ethiopian migrants discovered dead in a shipping container of a truck that had just crossed the border from Malawi.

Hermnio Jos Maputo & English Africa Service -Vatican City

In the early hours of Tuesday, this week, a container truck was stopped by Mozambiques immigration authorities in the province of Tete. It carried 78 people, 64 of whom were found lifeless. They had died of asphyxiation, as they were inside a metal shipping container, with no ventilation.

The remains of the 64 illegal immigrants, were buried Wednesday, at a cemetery within the city of Tete, Mozambique. The Ethiopian embassy was said to have been in touch with the Tete provincial migration office.

The 64 Ethiopian victims are believed to have boarded the shipping container in Malawi headed for the Mozambican city of Tete. 14 persons were said to have survived the ordeal. It is not uncommon for illegal Ethiopian migrants to be smuggled to South Africa via Mozambique in such circumstances.

The 14 survivors were also screened for the deadly coronavirus and are now quarantined in the city of Tete.

Speaking to Vatican News Portuguese Africa Service, the Bishop of Tete Diocese, Diamantino Guapo Antunes, I.M.C., described the tragic deaths as senseless and inhumane. He decried the fact that traffickers would transport human beings in such deplorable conditions. The young people who died, said Bishop Antunes, still had much to give to humankind.

In the meantime, the Bishop of Tete has said this diocese is coordinating with the Episcopal Commission for Migrants, Displaced People and Refugees-CEMIRDE, in assisting the 14 survivors.

Two Mozambicans have been arrested in connection with the deaths and human trafficking offences.

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Mozambican Bishop of Tete shocked by the deaths of 64 Ethiopians from asphyxiation - Vatican News