Border Patrol Labor Leader: Coronavirus pandemic requires US to adopt new policy to quickly deport illegal immigrants, Trump administration weighing sealing the southern border

Nobody would seriously disputre that the spread of coronavirus is a national crisis.  As has happened in response to past calamities, such as the repatriation of an estimated one millions persons of Mexican ancestry during the Great Depression and Japanese internment during World War II, expect some to blame immigrants for the problem.  Here is an example.  Brandon Judd, the president of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC), in this op/ed for Fox News writes that

“An emergency proposal to protect the American people from the coronavirus by quickly sending illegal immigrants and asylum seekers who cross our southern border back to Mexico should be approved as a short-term response to the pandemic.

Fox News learned Tuesday that the plan is being developed by the Department of Homeland Security, but is not yet ready to send to President Trump for a final decision.”

The national crisis may give the administration an opportunity to take even more aggressive immigration enforcement action, with potentially devastating impacts on immigrant communities.  There are reports (here, here, here) from many news outlets that the Trump administration is considering refusing entry to migrants, including asylum seekers, seeking unauthorized entry through Mexico.

KJ