[benjohnson]

As I understand it, the current refugee crisis at the American southern border has a large Covid-19 component.

This report says that at least one facility has a 10% infection rate.

At the current time, in my opinion, The American border can't keep out any pandemic if our neighbors have it. And vise versa.

[newacct583]

How does that square with both Mexico and Canada having significantly milder outbreaks on average? Objectively, aren't we giving it to them and not the reverse?

[benjohnson]

Either way - an open border is rotten for pandemic containment.

[newacct583]

Your use of terms like "open border" tells me that you've been mislead. The US/Mexico border is, sure, hard to manage and there's significant traffic that can't be contained.

Estimates of total unauthorized border crossings run around a few hundred thousand a year. That's what has you so freaked out.

A quick google tells me that the state department issued NINE MILLION visas in 2018 (don't have more recent data, and obviously 2020 is a huge outlier for both legal and illegal border crossings).

You can argue about immigration and labor effects all you want (along with other, less savory cultural/nativist ideas if you swing that way). But as a disease control effect it's complete noise. Legal immigration by world travellers dwarfs it by more than an order of magnitude.

Don't put this on the immigrants. You guys shit on them enough, and this bit just isn't their fault. At all.

[benjohnson]

Thank you for reiterating and expounding on the details of the problem of a open border when it comes to pandemics.