NTF issue paper: cong205.doc. 8-21.
NEBRASKA TAXPAYERS FOR FREEDOM ISSUE PAPER:
STOP COVID-19 SUPERSPREAD IN NEBRASKA FROM ILLEGAL ALIENS.
BACKGROUND. President Trump in 2020 initiated Title 42, a border health protection that allows U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to immediately expel illegal aliens to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. Issued by the Centers for Disease Control and enforced by the Department of Homeland Security, under Title 42, CBP must prioritize the health of American citizens and reject entry of a sick individual unlawfully entering the country. These illegals, with few exceptions, immediately returned to their country of last transit, indisputably slowing the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. and protecting our border communities. Title 42 has proved an effective mitigation strategy to reduce the spread of COVID-19 inside the U.S. from outside our borders. Under this order, officials have expelled 393,807 illegal aliens along the Mexican border. Now, the Biden Regime threatens to end this vital public health order. After Biden took office, his administration promised to end the Trump restrictions on the immigration system and, since January, 2021, has focused heavily on Title 42. This threat to remove border health protections unnecessarily puts the health of Americans/Nebraskans and our Border Patrol agents at risk. CBP is concerned that the loss of Title 42 could create intolerable pressure on our immigration system, believing the order “critical” to maintaining social distance in border facilities. It is not a tool of immigration. It is a tool of public health.
THE BILL. Twenty-six Republican senators signed a 4-page letter warning Biden that the revocation of Title 42 would further exacerbate the crisis at the Mexican border, requesting that the order remain in place until the threat of COVID-19 variants significantly reduced and until the implementation of policies to bring the crisis along the southern border under control. GOP lawmakers warned that the Regime would appear unprepared for a huge influx of illegals at the border, if we lose the ability to turn them away. Biden has no plan to handle the deluge after Title 42 lifted. Conservative Cong. Yvette Herrell (N.M.) introduced HR 471, which would keep in place immigration restrictions under public health authorities to prevent illegal aliens from bringing COVID-19 across the southern border. This legislation would prevent the Sec. of Health & Human Services from rescinding or lessening the stringency of restrictions and prohibit the Sec. of Homeland Security from ending or lessening implementation of these border health provisions or enforcement until the pandemic public health emergency declared over and the Director of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention reduces the traveler risk level for introducing, transmitting, and spreading COVID-19 from Mexico. Her legislation would prevent the introduction of new COVID-19 cases from our land and sea borders with Mexico. “Until the lockdowns and emergency declarations have ended, border health protections must remain in place to prevent the introduction of new cases and new strains of the virus at our borders,” Herrell added. This PAUSE Act requires Title 42 to remain in effect until all state and federal lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, curfews, and other COVID-19 mandates end, all state and federal public health emergencies for COVID-19 end, and the CDC traveler health risk level for Mexico reduced to Level 1. Her bill has 30 co-sponsors. The bill currently is in the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, awaiting a vote to advance it to the full House.
WORTHY OF SUPPORT. Title 42 has served as an effective containment and mitigation strategy, resulting in the reduced introduction of COVID-19 into the U.S. from outside our borders. To prematurely rescind this order would further endanger the lives of immigration workers and other citizens. Supporters include NumbersUSA, Federation for American Immigration Reform, and Heritage Action. “It is absolutely critical, as this pandemic continues, that the protections put into place by Executive Branch agencies under the Trump Administration are kept in place,” said the Director of Government Relations for NumbersUSA, “Americans have enough challenges trying to find or maintain employment and keep themselves and their families healthy without having to worry whether the Biden administration is allowing potentially infected foreigners into the U.S. to worsen the risk for all of us.” “Lifting Title 42 to pander to open-border advocates and allow illegal aliens to freely roam the country while simultaneously imposing draconian lockdowns on the American people defies common sense,” said Cong. Lauren Boebert (CO). Preserving the current existing border health protections will help stop the spread of COVID-19 and allow our country to recover more quickly from the effects of the pandemic. Weakening or repealing Title 42 will put our CBP officers at risk, add additional strains to the healthcare delivery systems in border communities, and encourage more illegal aliens to come to the U.S. when we must prioritize the health and safety of Americans first. The Biden Regime requires American citizens to produce proof of a negative COVID-19 test upon returning to the U.S. after traveling to a foreign country. It is ludicrous to require American citizens to present a negative COVID test upon reentry while simultaneously inviting illegal immigrants to sneak into our country with no testing requirement or regard for our laws. One cannot separate the border crisis from the pandemic. Biden immigration policies are creating a pandemic-related health crisis at the southern border, facilitating the spread of COVID-19 among the American public. The adoption of this leftist immigration agenda is creating a new humanitarian crisis at the border by attracting thousands of men, women, and children. Increasing the number of individuals at-risk of spreading COVID-19 is terribly irresponsible.
TAKE ACTION NOW. Understand this: If the Biden Regime ends Title 42, it will be releasing illegal aliens who are COVID-19 positive into our NE communities. Protecting American citizens should seem a 1st priority of the federal government. Until this pandemic is under control, preventing untested illegal aliens from entering NE is crucial. It is important to protect all Nebraskans from this threat. Virus-infected illegals can become super-spreaders in NE cities, towns, and countryside, particularly putting the ill and elderly at risk, also our schoolchildren, who must share class space with illegal aliens. Welfare, law enforcement, and judicial personnel also at risk. Using the information above, lobby your representative to support HR 471. Email netaxpayers@gmail.com for congressional contact information and join our NTF Congress Watch Project.
Research, documentation, and analysis for this issue paper done by Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom. This material copyrighted by Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom, with express prior permission granted for its use by other groups in the NE Conservative Coalition Network. 8-21. C