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Posted

President-elect Donald Trump is likely to justify his plans to seal off the border with Mexico by citing a public health emergency from immigrants bringing disease into the United States. 

Now he just has to find one. 

Trump last invoked public health restrictions, known as Title 42, in the early days of the pandemic in 2020, when the coronavirus was tearing across the globe. As he prepares to enter office again, Trump has no such public health disaster to point to. 

Still, his advisers have spent recent months trying to find the right disease to build their case, according to four people familiar with the discussions. They have looked at tuberculosis and other respiratory diseases as options and have asked allies inside the Border Patrol for examples of illnesses that are being detected among migrants. 

They also have considered trying to rationalize Title 42 by arguing broadly that migrants at the border come from various countries and may carry unfamiliar disease -- an assertion that echoes a racist notion with a long history in the United States that minorities transmit infections. Trump’s team did not respond to a request for comment. 

The plan to invoke the border restrictions based on sporadic cases of illness or even a vague fear of illness -- rather than a major disease outbreak or pandemic -- would amount to a radical use of the public health measure in pursuit of an immigration crackdown. Even when the coronavirus was spreading, the use of the health authority to turn away migrants prompted scrutiny from the courts and public health officials.

But Trump’s immigration advisers, led by Stephen Miller, his pick to be deputy chief of staff, believe they are entering a political environment that will welcome more aggressive border enforcement, particularly after some Democrats embraced using restrictions like Title 42, according to people familiar with the planning. President Joe Biden used it to turn away thousands of migrants before eventually deciding to lift it, well after his public health advisers said the restrictions were no longer useful for the purpose of stopping the spread of disease. 

Title 42, which is part of the Public Service Act of 1944, grants power to health authorities to block people from entering the United States when it is necessary to avert a “serious danger” posed by the presence of a communicable disease in foreign countries. 

Miller has long considered Title 42 a key tool for his goal of shuttering the border to migration. He has essentially been on a yearslong quest to find enough examples of diseases among migrants to justify the use of the law. 

Even before the spread of the coronavirus, Miller asked aides to keep tabs on American communities that welcomed migrants to see if diseases broke out there. He seized on an outbreak of mumps in immigration detention facilities in 2019 to push for using the public health law to seal the border. He was talked down in most of the cases by Cabinet secretaries and lawyers -- until the advent of the coronavirus. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, not the White House, is responsible for assessing whether the public health rule is necessary at the border. And even when the pandemic spread throughout the United States, CDC officials pushed back on the Trump White House’s position that turning away migrants was an effective way to prevent the spread of diseases. 

Martin Cetron, director of the agency’s Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, told a House committee that the implementation of the border restrictions “came from outside the CDC subject matter experts” and was “handed to us” by the White House. 

When Biden came into office, he initially kept the public health rule in place at the border, even when CDC officials told his top aides there was no clear public health rationale for keeping the border shut to asylum-seekers. Both the Biden and Trump administrations argued the rule was needed to prevent the spread of diseases in detention facilities at the border. But Biden’s top White House aides were privately concerned that lifting the rule would lead to a surge in migration. 

During his second stint in the White House, Trump’s team will focus on avoiding such pushback. He is intent on installing loyalists throughout his administration who are unlikely to try to stop his more aggressive proposals. 

In an interview with The New York Times in 2023, Miller sounded confident that the public would be accepting of Trump invoking Title 42. He said the new administration intended to use the law, citing “severe strains of the flu, tuberculosis, scabies, other respiratory illnesses like RSV and so on, or just a general issue of mass migration being a public health threat and conveying a variety of communicable diseases.” 

Trump’s attempt to deter migration based on public health, even without a clear disease to justify its use, is just one expected piece of a flurry of Day 1 executive actions that his team is developing to crack down on immigration. 

Trump’s advisers have also discussed declaring a national emergency to free up Department of Defense funds and move military personnel, aircraft and other resources to the border. They also want to revive a policy that forced migrants to wait in Mexico, rather than the United States, until their immigration court date -- although they would need Mexico to agree to such a deal. 

Trump’s immigration advisers received a briefing on such border restrictions -- as well as the use of the public health emergency restrictions -- during a recent meeting with homeland security officials as a part of the transition between administrations, according to a person familiar with the matter. After exiting a meeting with Senate Republicans on Wednesday evening, Trump said he would close the border on his first day in office. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/09/us/politics/trump-title-42-migrants.html

Posted

Man, the media really can’t help themselves, can they? This whole article is just another hit piece trying to make Trump look like the bad guy for actually doing something to protect this country.

The border is wide open, and people are pouring in from all over the world. You think none of them are bringing diseases with them? Give me a break. But when Trump wants to use Title 42 to stop it, suddenly it’s “racist”? Meanwhile, Biden used the same policy for years, and the media barely blinked.

At the end of the day, Trump’s doing what needs to be done. The border’s a mess, and if it takes using every tool available—including Title 42—to shut it down, then so be it. It’s about keeping Americans safe.

But of course, the NYT spins it like he’s hunting for excuses. No, he’s responding to a problem that’s been ignored for way too long. You’d think after the last few years, people would appreciate a leader who takes public health seriously.

Trump’s right. Shut it down on day one.

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Posted
On 1/11/2025 at 10:43 AM, GregoryPierreTolkien said:

Man, the media really can’t help themselves, can they? This whole article is just another hit piece trying to make Trump look like the bad guy for actually doing something to protect this country.

The border is wide open, and people are pouring in from all over the world. You think none of them are bringing diseases with them? Give me a break. But when Trump wants to use Title 42 to stop it, suddenly it’s “racist”? Meanwhile, Biden used the same policy for years, and the media barely blinked.

At the end of the day, Trump’s doing what needs to be done. The border’s a mess, and if it takes using every tool available—including Title 42—to shut it down, then so be it. It’s about keeping Americans safe.

But of course, the NYT spins it like he’s hunting for excuses. No, he’s responding to a problem that’s been ignored for way too long. You’d think after the last few years, people would appreciate a leader who takes public health seriously.

Trump’s right. Shut it down on day one.

Do you know anything about the border except Trump is right and bad brown people come in ?

Do you know that millions of white Americans live in the other side of the border ?  Have vacation homes on the other side ? Do business on the the other side ? Have family, friends and business on the other side ?

Shutting down the border harms these people immensely.

Posted
On 1/11/2025 at 9:51 AM, Spaztecs said:

Do you know anything about the border except Trump is right and bad brown people come in ?

Do you know that millions of white Americans live in the other side of the border ?  Have vacation homes on the other side ? Do business on the the other side ? Have family, friends and business on the other side ?

Shutting down the border harms these people immensely.

Dude is in a cult.  No reasoning or clue.  Just brown people bad.

  • Like 1
Posted
On 1/11/2025 at 9:51 AM, Spaztecs said:

Do you know anything about the border except Trump is right and bad brown people come in ?

Do you know that millions of white Americans live in the other side of the border ?  Have vacation homes on the other side ? Do business on the the other side ? Have family, friends and business on the other side ?

Shutting down the border harms these people immensely.

Trump plans to close the border on day one, and honestly, that’s exactly what needs to happen. The border is out of control, and half-measures aren’t cutting it.

Closing the border doesn’t mean shutting out legal travel or trade forever. It means taking immediate action to stop illegal crossings, drug smuggling, and human trafficking. Once the situation is under control, legal and safe crossings can continue.

If Biden and the Democrats had done their jobs, it wouldn’t have come to this. But they didn’t, so now Trump has to clean it up.

Protecting American citizens comes first. Always.

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Posted
On 1/11/2025 at 12:57 PM, InnZoneU said:

Dude is in a cult.  No reasoning or clue.  Just brown people bad.

Calling me part of a "cult" is just lazy. I’ve got five kids and a wife to protect, and I want a secure country for them to grow up in. This isn’t about race. It’s about safety, security, and enforcing the laws we already have.

Illegal immigration hurts everyone. Drugs, crime, and human trafficking coming across the border don’t care what race you are. Wanting to stop that doesn’t make me a bad person. It makes me a father looking out for his family.

If you think securing the border is wrong, maybe you need to ask yourself why you’re okay with chaos.

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Posted

Funny…I was on the border at Christmas.  Eagle Pass, Tx - where all the media reports came from.  Biden, Trump and Harris all visited last year.  Greg Abbott put the Big Balls of Fun there. 
 

 

was pretty quiet.

Posted
On 1/11/2025 at 11:43 AM, GregoryPierreTolkien said:

Man, the media really can’t help themselves, can they? This whole article is just another hit piece trying to make Trump look like the bad guy for actually doing something to protect this country.

The border is wide open, and people are pouring in from all over the world. You think none of them are bringing diseases with them? Give me a break. But when Trump wants to use Title 42 to stop it, suddenly it’s “racist”? Meanwhile, Biden used the same policy for years, and the media barely blinked.

At the end of the day, Trump’s doing what needs to be done. The border’s a mess, and if it takes using every tool available—including Title 42—to shut it down, then so be it. It’s about keeping Americans safe.

But of course, the NYT spins it like he’s hunting for excuses. No, he’s responding to a problem that’s been ignored for way too long. You’d think after the last few years, people would appreciate a leader who takes public health seriously.

Trump’s right. Shut it down on day one.

What the idiot NEEDS to be doing is the heavy lifting to change the laws if he wants to fix immigration.  But he is lazy, stupid, and lacks the attention span.  Plus you people eat up these symbolic and ineffective moves like "shutting the border"  Yeah, I am sure that stops drug dealers real well from walking across the desert.

Yeah the orange wizard of oa is going to wave his magic wand and fix the border.  It will happen right after that Mexican paid for wall shows up!

Posted
On 1/11/2025 at 9:51 AM, Spaztecs said:

Do you know anything about the border except Trump is right and bad brown people come in ?

Do you know that millions of white Americans live in the other side of the border ?  Have vacation homes on the other side ? Do business on the the other side ? Have family, friends and business on the other side ?

Shutting down the border harms these people immensely.

When they say “shut the border down”, what they mean is stop illegal immigration. No American with property in MX is going to be deprived of the opportunity to visit their property whenever they wish.

Posted

I don't get the hatred toward refugees, though I understand it's something America has wrestled with forever.

The nationalists have always whipped people into a frenzy about being invaded by the Irish, Italians, Scots, and so on throughout the ages.

The irony is these new nationalists don't see their hypocrisy, as many of them have the blood of refugees in them.

WildBeast-hires.png

 

anti-irish-cartoon-1871-thomas-nast.jpg

  • Like 6
Posted
On 1/11/2025 at 11:01 AM, GregoryPierreTolkien said:

Trump plans to close the border on day one, and honestly, that’s exactly what needs to happen. The border is out of control, and half-measures aren’t cutting it.

Closing the border doesn’t mean shutting out legal travel or trade forever. It means taking immediate action to stop illegal crossings, drug smuggling, and human trafficking. Once the situation is under control, legal and safe crossings can continue.

If Biden and the Democrats had done their jobs, it wouldn’t have come to this. But they didn’t, so now Trump has to clean it up.

Protecting American citizens comes first. Always.

Americans come first at the expense of Americans needing to cross the border in their daily lives ?

That's priceless.

Posted
On 1/11/2025 at 12:29 PM, Dogs4Me said:

When they say “shut the border down”, what they mean is stop illegal immigration. No American with property in MX is going to be deprived of the opportunity to visit their property whenever they wish.

I'll bet the brown ones will have trouble returning. America has a race problem. Always has.

It is possible to fix the border without "shutting it down" and making life harder for Americans on both sides of a line on the map.

Simpletons, the whole lot of you.

 

Posted
On 1/11/2025 at 12:27 PM, CV147 said:

I don't get the hatred toward refugees, though I understand it's something America has wrestled with forever.

The nationalists have always whipped people into a frenzy about being invaded by the Irish, Italians, Scots, and so on throughout the ages.

The irony is these new nationalists don't see their hypocrisy, as many of them have the blood of refugees in them.

WildBeast-hires.png

 

anti-irish-cartoon-1871-thomas-nast.jpg

To your point…..

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/08/13/stephen-miller-is-an-immigration-hypocrite-i-know-because-im-his-uncle-219351/

 

 

Posted
On 1/11/2025 at 11:29 AM, Dogs4Me said:

When they say “shut the border down”, what they mean is stop illegal immigration. No American with property in MX is going to be deprived of the opportunity to visit their property whenever they wish.

Really?  So tell me why a Canadian who was a legal immigrant went home to visit family during the 1st Trump admin and was not allowed to return.  He had to sell his business and his home under duress.   

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Posted
On 1/11/2025 at 1:04 PM, GregoryPierreTolkien said:

Calling me part of a "cult" is just lazy. I’ve got five kids and a wife to protect, and I want a secure country for them to grow up in. This isn’t about race. It’s about safety, security, and enforcing the laws we already have.

Illegal immigration hurts everyone. Drugs, crime, and human trafficking coming across the border don’t care what race you are. Wanting to stop that doesn’t make me a bad person. It makes me a father looking out for his family.

If you think securing the border is wrong, maybe you need to ask yourself why you’re okay with chaos.

good news man. crime has been falling for years. we did it. country is secure. 

Posted
On 1/12/2025 at 7:39 PM, Sactowndog said:

Really?  So tell me why a Canadian who was a legal immigrant went home to visit family during the 1st Trump admin and was not allowed to return.  He had to sell his business and his home under duress.   

Don’t know, care to provide more detail?

Also, one of the differences between us is that I assume the government is full of incompetent people that make mistakes, whereas people like yourself idolize government and believe it to be infallible. When I’m wrong it’s a pleasant surprise. When I’m not, it was expected. When you’re wrong it’s time for a crusade because Orange Man did it. When you’re right, it’s the same as when you’re wrong.

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Posted
On 1/13/2025 at 4:57 AM, happycamper said:

good news man. crime has been falling for years. we did it. country is secure. 

If the country is so secure, why are we seeing record numbers of illegal crossings and fentanyl flooding into our communities? Tell that to the families who have lost loved ones to drug overdoses or victims of violent crimes committed by people who shouldn’t even be here.

Crime stats can be twisted to look however politicians want them to, but the reality on the ground tells a different story. Our border is wide open, and that’s a serious threat to every American.

We need real action, not cherry-picked numbers. Closing the border is a step in the right direction to actually make this country secure.

Posted
On 1/13/2025 at 2:19 PM, GregoryPierreTolkien said:

If the country is so secure, why are we seeing record numbers of illegal crossings and fentanyl flooding into our communities? Tell that to the families who have lost loved ones to drug overdoses or victims of violent crimes committed by people who shouldn’t even be here.

Crime stats can be twisted to look however politicians want them to, but the reality on the ground tells a different story. Our border is wide open, and that’s a serious threat to every American.

We need real action, not cherry-picked numbers. Closing the border is a step in the right direction to actually make this country secure.

Brah, have you been around the last 50 years?  How well has militarizing and drug war worked? Let's do the same failed policies again.  MAGA!

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