Trump's Covid measures see 8,800 unaccompanied children deported from US
Border Patrol Deputy Chief Raul Ortiz said more than eight thousand unaccompanied children were deported at the United States border due to Covid-19 rules.
When Donald Trump was elected president in 2016 he stated that one of his priorities was to secure the country’s borders and prevent illegal immigrants from gaining access to the US. After the coronavirus pandemic hit the country in early March, Trump’s administration moved to close the US' borders and the president adopted an even tougher stance over immigration.
Thousands of children deported from US under Covid protocol
Border Patrol Deputy Chief Raul Ortiz said on Friday in a court declaration that 8,800 unaccompanied children have been deported while trying to cross the border from Mexico to the United States. Ortiz confirmed the reason for the deportations was based on the Trump administration's coronavirus health directive measures, implemented in March, which largely prevent anyone from seeking asylum in the US during the ongoing pandemic.
Since the new order became effective, the Trump administration has expelled roughly 160,000 people; 7,600 of whom were adults and children who came to the country in families. The order issued in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak in the US essentially slaps a ban on foreign nationals entering the United States via Mexico or Canada.
The numbers presented by Ortiz had been previously released in June after the Trump administration implentd the emergency measure with the aim of preventing the further spread of Covid-19. But in reality it throws away a decades-old practice that protected children from human trafficking and offered them a chance to seek asylum in the US via applications through the US Immigration Courts.