Open Borders Are Dangerous To Our (Public) Health — Ellis Island was a quarantine station.

In recent years there have been outbreaks of dangerous communicable diseases that had either been eradicated in the United States or were uncommon in the United States altogether such as diseases commonly found in the tropics or in other parts of the world.

Within the past few months the mainstream media has reported on how a number of dangerous communicable diseases. such as the measles, have infected many people, particularly children in the United States.  The focus of the reports has been on children who because of religious beliefs or fears about the perceived nexus between vaccinations and autism have not been vaccinated to protect them against measles and other such communicable diseases.

For example, on March 7, 2019 the New York Times reported, “Measles Outbreak: 1 Student Got 21 Others Sick.”

These reports blithely ignore the nexus between illegal immigration and outbreaks of these debilitating and deadly diseases.

In the Orwellian world all too many journalists and politicians inhabit today, aliens who evade the vital inspections process at ports of entry and enter the United States without inspections are simply referred to as “Undocumented Immigrants.”  I have addressed this linguistic “sleight of tongue” in many of my articles so I won’t delve into the dishonesty this represents.  It suffices to say that aliens who enter the United States without inspection evade a serious vetting process to make certain that criminals and terrorists not gain access to the United States to protect national security and public safety.

The vetting process is also supposed to make certain that aliens with dangerous communicable diseases are prevented from entering the United States to protect public health.

This is yet another vetting process that aliens who enter without inspection are not subjected to.

The United States Public Health Service (USPH) explains its mission at U.S. Ports of Entry on its website under the heading, Protecting America’s Health At U.S. Ports of Entry

Here is how USPH explains its mission:

Detect, respond, and protect 24/7 Strategically placed at 20 U.S. ports of entry, CDC protects America from public health threats, both foreign and domestic. Highly skilled CDC staff work 24/7 to detect, respond to, and prevent the spread of contagious diseases.

With our partners, CDC responds to sick travelers who arrive in the United States at major airports, seaports, or land border crossings. We alert travelers about disease outbreaks and steps they can take to protect themselves.

We restrict the importation of animals and products that may carry disease. We are always on call—during the workday, on weekends, and in the middle of the night. We’re on the frontlines, protecting you and your community.

Disease is just a flight away

When sick passengers are on a flight, the airline lets CDC know. We evaluate whether they might be contagious to others on the plane. Some diseases can spread quickly through a community, so CDC works with state and local health departments to evaluate and respond. When necessary, CDC can prevent a sick person from traveling and exposing others to disease. It’s all about making sure 1 sick traveler doesn’t become 100 sick people in your community.

At the beginning of my career with the former INS I served as an Immigration Inspector at John F. Kennedy International Airport and worked closely with USPH.

This calls to mind an article I wrote in July of last year, The Left’s Immigration Con Game in which I debunked the lies about Ellis Island which when it was completed more than one hundred years ago included the largest hospital complex in the United States at that time.

Here is an excerpt from the my earlier article:

An extraordinary film, Forgotten Ellis Island, is a must-see documentary that tells the true story about Ellis Island, and the story is not particularly pretty or romantic.

To begin with, Ellis Island was not a natural island but was constructed on rocks and debris removed during the construction of the massive New York City subway system.

By situating this federal facility on this artificial island, no aliens could come ashore and abscond the way that today aliens exploit the lunacy known as “catch & release” — a policy that incidentally does not only occur along the borders of the United States but, similarly plagues the integrity of the immigration system from within the interior of the United States.

The only way for aliens to get from Ellis Island to New York City, and hence the U.S. mainland, was by a government-operated ferry.

According to the documentary, Ellis Island included a massive hospital complex that consisted of 22 buildings.

One hundred years ago, Public Health officials worked with immigration inspectors to process the arriving immigrants.  Back then, the most significant concerns with admission decisions centered on health-related issues.

In my piece I noted that there were two concerns about the health of arriving immigrants.  Obviously the greatest concern was that relatively minor infections could lead to the deadly epidemics because there were no antibiotics back then.

The second concern was to make certain that arriving immigration were of sound mind and body so that they would be able to be gainfully employed and support themselves.

Those concerns can be found in a section of the current Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

8 U.S. Code § 1182 (Inadmissible Aliens).

This extremely important section of law that was enacted to protect America and Americans begins with the following:

(a) Classes of aliens ineligible for visas or admission Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, aliens who are inadmissible under the following paragraphs are ineligible to receive visas and ineligible to be admitted to the United States:

(1) Health-related grounds

(A) In general Any alien—

(i) who is determined (in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services) to have a communicable disease of public health significance; [1]

(ii) except as provided in subparagraph (C), who seeks admission as an immigrant, or who seeks adjustment of status to the status of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, and who has failed to present documentation of having received vaccination against vaccine-preventable diseases, which shall include at least the following diseases: mumps, measles, rubella, polio, tetanus and diphtheria toxoids, pertussis, influenza type B and hepatitis B, and any other vaccinations against vaccine-preventable diseases recommended by the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices,

(iii) who is determined (in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services in consultation with the Attorney General)—

(I) to have a physical or mental disorder and behavior associated with the disorder that may pose, or has posed, a threat to the property, safety, or welfare of the alien or others, or

(II) to have had a physical or mental disorder and a history of behavior associated with the disorder, which behavior has posed a threat to the property, safety, or welfare of the alien or others and which behavior is likely to recur or to lead to other harmful behavior, or

(iv) who is determined (in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services) to be a drug abuser or addict, is inadmissible.

Nevertheless, for the members of Congress who refuse to fund the construction of an effective barrier on the U.S./Mexican border and now seek to block President Trump’s declaration of an emergency, none of this matters.

For them, dead bodies are mere speed bumps along the road to their political objectives.

EDITORS NOTE: This FrontPage Magazine column is republished with permission.

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