The president and his allies pointed to the U.S.-Mexico border as a source of COVID-19, and suggested the wall would protect us. It turns out we were a source of COVID-19 to other countries as much as the other way around, and the wall had nothing to do with it.
β Tim Steller
President Trump toured a section of the border wall on June 23 in San Luis, accompanied by, among others, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, right, and U.S. Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., in yellow.
Before the novel coronavirus claimed its first known American victim, President Trump was already reaching to connect the disease to the U.S.-Mexico border.
During a Feb. 28 rally in South Carolina, he contended that we needed to build more border wall to keep the virus out, though it was already in and spreading.
βWe must understand that border security is also health security,β Trump argued. βWe will do everything in our power to keep the infection and those carrying the infection from entering our country.β
That same day, the U.S. had 63 known cases of COVID-19, and Mexico announced its first two confirmed cases. The next day, King County, Washington, announced a death from COVID-19, at the time the first known coronavirus death in North America.
The United States started as the regionβs hot spot for the new infection and has only extended its lead. In April, Guatemalaβs health minister complained that the United States was deporting infected people to his country and referred to our country as the βWuhan of the Americas.β
Nevertheless, Trump and some of his allies have continued trying to frame illegal crossings of the Mexican border as a top potential source of coronavirus in the United States.
Also on Feb. 28, nine members of Congress, including Reps. Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs of Arizona, co-signed a letter to the secretaries of Homeland Security, Defense and Health and Human Services, demanding to know what was being done about cross-border spread from illegal crossings.
