Coronavirus: United States Close Borders against Canadian and Mexican Visitors

The Trump administration disclosed that an agreement has been reached with Canada and Mexico to close borders until October 21 so as to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 across borders. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf confirmed the development and so did the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness in Canada, Bill Blair.

This is not the first time the United States would be locking its borders against non-essential travels across neighboring borders. The US, Canada, and Mexico agreed in March to shut land borders against non-essential travelers, and the expiry times had been extended several times. The last extension was to expire on September 21 before the current extension to October 21.

“We continue to work with our Canadian and Mexican partners to slow the spread of #COVID19,” Wolf tweeted. “Accordingly, we have agreed to extend the limitation of non-essential travel at our shared land ports of entry through October 21.”

Almost all of Canada’s food comes through or from the United States, truck drivers and airline crews as well as healthcare professionals will still be allowed to pass through land borders. And also, American citizens in Canada or Mexico can return home to the US via land borders without being stopped.

“We are extending non-essential travel restrictions with the United States until October 21st, 2020,” Bill Blair confirmed. “We will continue to base our decisions on the best public health advice available to keep Canadians safe.”

In order to beat coronavirus importation from other countries, the US government equally banned travels from the UK, Brazil, China, Iran, and the EU. One of the major effects of this situation is that illegal immigrants are turned back and not allowed to enter the US because of the heightened risks of coronavirus.

Alternatively, Mexico and Canada have also restricted travel to US travelers because of COVID-19 and this elongates the list of countries that already placed a ban on American travelers. In the European Union, almost 27 countries are disallowing travel from the United States, and US citizens are also not allowed into New Zealand and Australia at the moment.

Source: foxnews.com