WASHINGTON — President Trump’s go-to protection of his early response to the coronavirus is his choice to shut down journey from China, the virus’s
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s go-to protection of his early response to the coronavirus is his choice to shut down journey from China, the virus’s unique epicenter, after which from ravaged Europe.
However these hasty selections led to exoduses of Americans, with packed, chaotic airports and, in keeping with a brand new congressional report, porous screenings for passengers who may have been bringing the coronavirus dwelling with them.
Medical officers on contract from the Division of Homeland Safety checked the temperature of simply 10 p.c of greater than 250,000 vacationers at U.S. airports arriving from travel-restricted international locations throughout a 10-week span from January to March, in keeping with a report launched Thursday by the Home Oversight and Reform Committee, undercutting one of many centerpieces of Mr. Trump’s argument that his administration responded aggressively to reply to the coronavirus pandemic.
If customs officers observed signs amongst vacationers getting back from restricted international locations, they referred them to the medical officers on contract stationed on the airport.
However out of greater than 250,000 vacationers these medical officers screened, just below 1,500 got a 3rd screening by Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention officers between Jan. 17 and March 29. And C.D.C. officers had been those primarily figuring out whether or not a traveler displaying signs wanted to be federally quarantined.
Homeland safety officers from the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Workplace instructed the committee that the casual coverage was to examine one among each 10 passengers as a result of they “don’t wish to sluggish issues down,” in keeping with the report.
The findings of the report undercut earlier statements made by homeland safety officers and Mr. Trump, who has pointed to his choice to implement journey restrictions towards China, Iran and greater than two dozen European international locations as proof that his administration responded aggressively to the pandemic. Whereas Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, the performing deputy secretary of homeland safety, stated the screening helped “scale back and delay the largest peak within the virus,” many American citizens returning to the United States have also reported a lack of screenings.
The release of the report also comes as new evidence emerges that the tidal wave of infections that has killed more than 75,000 Americans came largely from New York City, via travelers from Europe, not China.
“Due to denials and delays, the administration lost critical time it could have used to prepare and build up capacity to mitigate — a capacity we are now struggling to build while the virus wreaks havoc in our hospitals and homes,” said Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat who is chairman of the House Oversight subcommittee on economic and consumer policy.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment. When pressed over whether his administration responded early enough to combat the pandemic, Mr. Trump has repeatedly pointed to one of his favored topics: border restrictions.
“I think we’ve made a lot of really good decisions,” Mr. Trump said during a White House briefing last month. “The big decision was closing the border or doing the ban — people coming in from China.”
In addition to barring foreigners from China, Iran, the United Kingdom, Ireland and much of Europe, he has also cited the risks of spreading the coronavirus to effectively seal the southwestern border to asylum-seeking migrants.
More than 16,700 migrants were stopped by border officials in April, according to Customs and Border Protection data released Thursday, down from more than 34,000 in March and a steep decline from last May’s total of 144,116 — the highest single monthly total of border arrests in more than a decade. But Customs and Border Protections officers used authority granted to the surgeon general to immediately turn away 14,416 of those migrants last month without the chance to have their claim of fear heard.
While the administration’s border restrictions have prevented migrants, many fleeing violence and persecution, from entering the United States, the congressional report found that American citizens returning from coronavirus hot spots overseas passed too easily through controls.
After announcing the barring of foreigners from China in late January, Mr. Trump expanded the travel restrictions to more than two dozen European countries in March. American citizens returning from those countries or South Korea were funneled to 13 designated airports, where they were met by a customs officer, asked questions about their travel and medical history, and could be referred to a screening by a medical official.
But Mr. Trump’s erroneous announcement from the White House that he would be “suspending all travel from Europe to the United States,” when it only applied to foreigners, sparked a race to return to the U.S. and chaotic crowds at airports. Administration officials “were so focused on getting staffed up” that they did not address the need for social distancing measures before the restrictions were implemented, according to a statement from the oversight committee.