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President Trump Announces U.S.-Mexico Border Closure Amid Coronavirus Spread
Silke Jasso, March 21, 2020 1:12 pm
The United States has officially suspended all non-essential traffic across its borders with both Canada and Mexico as it battles to control the Coronavirus Outbreak. The move follows an announcement made earlier this week that both Canada and the United States agreed to close their shared border for at least 30 days, for essential travels. It will remain open for urgent or necessary business and commercial traffic. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated this will not affect lawful trade or commerce.
President Trump took steps to minimize border crossings at the Mexican border by blocking any migrant and asylum seekers on top of the measure that is already in place. The United States also issued a "do not travel" warning for citizens, which advises against traveling to an international destination.
Mexico is also suspending air travel from Europe to help protect the southern border of the U.S. President Trump added both the Mexican and Canadian borders are being treated the same, in terms of action taken to limit any cross border travel. The border closing between Mexico and the United State will take effect beginning on Saturday, March 21, 2020.
The CDC also recommends to immediately institute "blanket refusal" of entry to anyone on both the southern or northern U.S. border who doesn't have proper documentation for lawful entry. This replaces existing practices of processing and holding in CBP facilities at the border those attempting to cross. All attempted border crossing individuals will be returned to their original country of citizenship, as stated by Trump.
As COVID-19 cases rise, in the United States there have been at least 210 deaths and over 14,600 confirmed cases of the virus. Worldwide, there have been over 11,1000 deaths, with Italy being the biggest one-day Coronavirus case increase. Globally, there are more than 265,000 confirmed cases around the globe.
The Trump administration is limiting non-essential travel on the US-Mexico border and barring migrants illegally crossing the border from entering the US. https://t.co/5CkvDATxXA
— CNN (@CNN) March 20, 2020
Health experts have recommended everyone to partake in lockdowns and self-isolation to help prevent coronavirus spread. People are asked to remain in their homes as much as possible.
On Friday, March 20, 2020, President Donald Trump announced the following measures to help combat COVID-19:
Restricting nonessential travel between the U.S. and Mexico
Allowing borrowers with federal student loans to be able to pause their payments for two months without interest accruing
Enacting the Defense Production Act to get critical medical supplies
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About the author: Silke Jasso, Editor
Silke Jasso is a bilingual editor, writer, producer, and journalist specialized in online media. Born in Laredo Texas, her previous work includes LareDOS Newspaper where she was an editor and writer and Entravision Communications where she was a Co-Anchor and Multi-Media Journalist for Fox39 News and Univision 27.