Border states with Canada have highest coronavirus rate

FPI / March 19, 2020

Millions of noncitizens were allowed to enter the United States via its northern border with Canada before Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a national lockdown over the coronavirus outbreak.

New York and Washington state, which have heavily-traveled borders with Canada, have among the highest number of coronavirus cases in the U.S.

On March 16, Trudeau said he would be shutting down Canada’s borders to noncitizens with exemptions for permanent Canadian residents, diplomats, aircrews, and American citizens. Before the announcement, Trudeau had not issued a single travel ban — not even for China, Iran, South Korea, or Italy.

U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted on March 18: "We will be, by mutual consent, temporarily closing our Northern Border with Canada to non-essential traffic. Trade will not be affected."

In the last two and a half months, nearly 6.3 million noncitizens were allowed to enter the United States via the northern border with Canada, federal data obtained by Breitbart News shows.

Between Jan. 1 and March 15, a total of 6,275,009 noncitizens were granted admission to the U.S. from Canada. The overwhelming majority, 6,254,052 noncitizens, arrived via land, while 16,420 arrived at sea and 4,537 via air travel.

These noncitizens include the millions of Canadians who are admitted to the U.S. on a daily basis for non-immigrant, temporary purposes and not to permanently resettle.

These admissions are in addition to the nearly 10,400 northern border crossers encountered by Border Patrol in January and February, as Breitbart News reported.

The number of apprehensions and admissions come as President Donald Trump has announced that he will close the northern border to non-essential travel — effectively shutting off entry to foreign nationals living in Canada.

Medical experts have routinely said that border and immigration controls are necessary to stop the growing outbreak of the coronavirus in the U.S. Last week, experts said 30 states had seen coronavirus outbreaks specifically because of travel to the U.S. from Europe.

The coronavirus pandemic has infected 222,000 people around the world and killed more than 9,100, according to the Johns Hopkins resource center. About 84,500 have recovered.

Free Press International