Criticism of US government as next border closure decision looms

[ad_1]

The US government is due to make a decision later this week on whether or not to extend the border closure to Canadians for one month.

Before that happened, the U.S. federal government – which for months faced backlash from state leaders like Governor Inslee and the Washington Congressional delegation – was also coming under fire from critics. foreign policy experts for keeping the border closed last month, even after Canada opened its doors. to vaccinated Americans.

During a panel Monday at the annual Pacific Northwest Economic Region summit in Montana, members of the Canadian and U.S. governments discussed how the border closure could have been better handled – and what which could be learned for the inevitable future pandemics.

Heads of State “Deeply Disappointed” by Decision to Extend US Border Closure

Alan Bersin, who served as assistant secretary for international affairs in the Obama administration, as well as chief diplomat in the policy bureau of the US Department of Homeland Security and INTERPOL’s vice president for the Americas region, said that closing the border has become too much of a game of politics, instead of the health-based decision it should be.

“There has been a massive, massive political failure here,” Bersin said.

The half-open and half-closed border situation created by opening Canada to vaccinated Americans on August 9 and shutting down the United States has created a nightmarish situation for businesses in Point Roberts, already on the brink after 17 months. interruption of Canadian and US customers. With Canadians – who own most of the Point Roberts homes as vacation homes – are barred from entering the isolated community which shares a land border only with Canada, and the Americans at Point Roberts are now free to shop across the border in British Columbia, small town businesses are losing their few remaining customers.

Instead of having one side closed and another open, Bersin argued that what should have happened was a unified approach between the United States and Canada to apply the same restrictions to people crossing on both sides. He believes the federal government under the Biden administration was too afraid to take a stand on such controversial topics as vaccine requirements, or to make a decision on the northern border when the southern border is such a point of contention.

“This is a very dangerous precedent and a very dangerous experience,” Bersin said, considering possible future crises that could justify a similar border closure.

However, Ted Sobel, attached to Canada with the US Department of Homeland Security, said there was no legal obligation to maintain the same policies at the southern and northern borders, and that the northern border could potentially open up. first. The reason the national government decided to keep the border closed for another month, he said, was not because of the southern border, but rather because of the delta variant, which was just starting its strong. increase at the time of the last border closure. the extension was announced at the end of July.

“What was really important was the spread of the delta variant and all the unknowns about it, as well as national public health trends – dealing with things like vaccination rates, hospitalization rates, new infection rates, ”Sobel explained. “So these are the things that we were looking at very closely. “

He called the decision a “day-to-day review” based on the most recent data at one point, noting that it was never meant to be a “completely symmetrical approach” with Canada.

“At the moment, it made sense to take this very closely coordinated approach,” he said, adding: “We are continuing on a 30-day cycle – for the very reason that we want to maintain flexibility.”

He stressed that if things improve noticeably within 30 days, the border could reopen sooner.

Bersin’s idea is to completely remove politicians from decision-making and hand it over to health officials.

“I think the answer is that we need to have subject matter expertise to govern these decisions,” he said. “In some cross-border issues like water and borders, we don’t do these political debates. I believe we are going to have to do the same in the area of ​​public health.

[ad_2]