My, how the tables have turned.
Many Americans are relocating from their homes to far-flung places to escape the coronavirus outbreak.
This, public health officials tell us, only worsens the outbreak — they can carry the virus without any symptoms.
A growing number of people in Mexico want their government to crack down on the reportedly growing number of American citizens who are fleeing south to escape Trump’s colossal mismanagement of the worsening U.S. outbreak.
Customs and Border Protection quietly requested 1,540 military personnel to assist with border enforcement, citing migrants' "potential to spread infectious disease" per DHS memo leaked to me.
1,000 troops would go to the Canadian border: https://t.co/ARxTjp3MWF pic.twitter.com/1H4jrwkVSU
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) March 26, 2020
From BBC News:
Residents in Sonora, south of the US state of Arizona, have promised to block traffic into Mexico for a second day after closing a checkpoint for hours on Wednesday. They wore face masks and held signs telling Americans to “stay at home”.Mexico has fewer than 500 confirmed Covid-19 cases and the US over 65,000.
The border is supposed to be closed to all except “essential” business, but protesters said there has been little enforcement and no testing by authorities.
The blockade was led by members of a Sonora-based group, Health and Life, who called for medical testing to be done on anyone who crosses from the US into Mexico.
Jose Luis Hernandez, a group member, told the Arizona Republic: “There are no health screenings by the federal government to deal with this pandemic. That’s why we’re here in Nogales. We’ve taken this action to call on the Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to act now.”
Read more at Arizona Central (the source of the reporting, paywalled):
Protesters block southbound lanes at Arizona border crossing, demand stricter coronavirus screenings
Read more at BBC:
Coronavirus: Mexicans demand crackdown on Americans crossing the border