WASHINGTON: The U.S. closed on Friday lanes at some access ports on the Mexican border and will conduct further secondary checks to restrict non-essentials and the spread of coronavirus, a U.S. Customs and Border Coverage (CBP) official said.
The non-essential has been limited to the border since March, but U.S. citizens and permanent citizens can still enter the U.S. From Mexico. The new measures target these readers, the CBP official said.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who will be re-elected on November 3, has taken a series of radical steps to reduce immigration and the coronavirus pandemic, adding emergency border regulations that allow the U.S. government to temporarily deport migrants detained at the border.
The United States leads the world with more than 174,000 coronavirus deaths, followed by Brazil with 112,000 and Mexico with 59,000, according to a Reuters count.
“We want other people to think twice about what is not essential and whether vacation is a value risking their lives and the lives of others,” El Paso CBP spokesman Roger Maier said in a written statement.
CBP said it would take steps to reduce non-essentials at more than a dozen border crossings in Texas, Arizona and California. Waiting times for passenger cars on those access issues on Friday night ranged from not waiting to several hours.
The Trump administration had a move to prevent U.S. citizens and citizens from returning home if they were suspected of being inflamed by the coronavirus, Reuters reported this month.
The plan has been criticized by some hospitals, U.S. expats and immigrant advocacy groups.
According to two officials familiar with the deliberations, senior White House officials have opposed the proposal, it is unclear whether it can be resurrected.
Jeeshen Lee and Caren Tee own and manage Softinn, which supplies software for more than 1,000 hotels in Malaysia and Indonesia.