PHOENIX – Arizona State Representatives Mark Finchem, Bret Roberts, Gail Griffin, and Becky Nutt are calling on Governor Doug Ducey and the Biden administration to ensure that migrants, who illegally cross the border, complete a 14-day quarantine protocol.
The lawmakers, who all represent border counties, are calling for the protocols recommended by the federal Centers for Disease Control.
“For over a year, Arizonans, and indeed all of America, have been forced to endure a job-killing, mask-and-social-distance-promoting public health policy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said the legislators in a joint statement. “Just as Arizona is finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel with the dramatic reduction in positive cases and associated deaths, the Biden administration has opened the southern border to coyotes and cartels facilitating illegal entry into the United States.”
The legislators allege that “individuals coming across the border without testing, quarantine, and contact tracing are being turned over to non-governmental organizations, which in turn are bussing them wherever in America they may claim to have family or friends.”
Border Patrol agents have confirmed that the illegal entrants are processed as fast as possible and believe that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is releasing most of the aliens into the general population within 72 hours of their arrival.
“President Biden, at his inauguration, swore to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States and to faithfully execute the laws thereof. In his abandonment of border security, policies implemented within hours of taking office, he has exposed the entire nation to thousands of illegal aliens entering the country without any public health precautions,” claim the legislators in their joint statement.
“We call on Governor Doug Ducey to join his fellow border Governor Greg Abbott of Texas in deploying our National Guard to combat the escalating border surge crisis and support the operations of border sheriffs to apprehend and hold these individuals. It must be ensured that they complete a 14-day quarantine protocol, as recommended by the federal Centers for Disease Control, and the United States has a secure southern border with policies in place against continued illegal immigration,” concluded the legislators, who argued that the “public health protocols that we Americans have been subject to for the past year, and which President Biden continues to call for us all to live under, should also apply to anyone who enters the country, legally or illegally.”
The legislators said, “Anything less is reckless and irresponsible.”
Over the weekend, Abbott announced a campaign to counter the Biden administration’s open border policy. Dubbed Operation Lone Star, the Texas Department of Safety will partner with the Texas National Guard to combat the smuggling of people and drugs into the state.
While elected officials like Yuma Mayor Doug Nicholls have expressed concern about the release of migrants into Arizona communities, Governor Doug Ducey has remained silent on the subject.