Thursday, April 21, 2022

For DHS, Pandemic Rages Everywhere But The Border; Biden Administration Appeals Mask Mandate Rejection After CDC Says It Must Fight, and other C-Virus related stories

AP Photo/Elliot Spagat
For DHS, pandemic rages everywhere but the border:
The coronavirus pandemic is still bad enough that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced this week that foreign students will be granted a waiver for the next school year, allowing them to stay in the U.S. even if their classes are all online.
ICE is also treating the pandemic as very real when it comes to detention, cutting its capacity for holding immigrants awaiting deportation nearly in half.
Yet another agency, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, says it will maintain a web of pandemic waivers and exceptions, including special rules on interpreters for asylum cases, and more leeway on presenting follow-up evidence to agency officers.
For Homeland Security, the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be raging everywhere but at the border, where the Biden administration says things have improved enough that next month it will lift the pandemic shutdown, officially known as Title 42.
Homeland Security officials said they are following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in figuring out which pandemic policies to maintain. --->READ MORE HERE
AP Photo/John Minchillo
Biden administration appeals mask mandate rejection after CDC says it must fight:
The Justice Department told a court in Florida Wednesday it is appealing a judge’s ruling invalidating the federal mask mandate on public transportation after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the rule remains vital to protecting public health.
While it is not clear if the Biden administration will succeed, the move is likely to kick up a firestorm after airline passengers gleefully ripped off their masks following the Monday order. Justice Department lawyers had said they were ready to fight the order but were waiting for the public health agency to give them the go-ahead.
“It is CDC’s continuing assessment that at this time an order requiring masking in the indoor transportation corridor remains necessary for the public health. CDC will continue to monitor public health conditions to determine whether such an order remains necessary,” the agency said. “CDC believes this is a lawful order, well within CDC’s legal authority to protect public health.”
After a confusing two days, the White House said it believed the decision to extend mask-wearing on planes, trains and buses was within the CDC’s authority and affirming that power was important given the uncertain nature of the pandemic — even if the mandate was set to expire on May 3.
The fight over the transportation mask mandate had been somewhat of a “Catch-22” for President Biden, who has repeatedly deferred to the CDC.
He is caught between that deference to public scientists and a pandemic-weary public that wants to shed masks and other rules, although an Associated Press-NORC poll on Wednesday said most Americans support a mask mandate on public transportation. --->READ MORE HERE
Follow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:

Disney World drops mask mandate for guests at Florida resort

From Planes, to Ubers to Trains: Here's How the New Mask Mandate Ruling Will Affect Your Travels

USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates

WSJ: Coronavirus Live Updates

YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates

NEW YORK POST: Coronavirus The Latest

If you like what you see, please "Like" and/or Follow us on FACEBOOK here, GETTR here, and TWITTER here.


No comments: