As we have seen the completely botched implementation of the President’s ban on travel to and from the European Union over the past three days, Customs & Border Protection (CBP), especially the Customs part has come under some harsh criticism. Friends, lurkers, commenters, lend me your eyes. I come not to burry Customs, but to write about them. To be honest, the terrible mess of the arrivals processing at the thirteen airports designated to take international arrivals under the President’s executive order was complete foreseeable. Largely because the President completely botched explaining it in his Oval Office address last week. He misstated the policy and, as a result, a significantly large amount of US citizens and legal residents that were in the EU states, as well as several other European states not in the EU, immediately decided they need to get back to the US lest they get stranded somewhere in Europe. As a result far more people flew back to the US on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and today than could be quickly and efficiently processed at Customs and Immigration. Let alone also screened for potential infection.
Last Thursday, the 12th of March, Ken Klippenstein reported in The Nation that:
An Internal Pandemic Document Shows the Coronavirus Gives Trump Extraordinary Powers
A leaked Customs and Border Protection directive allows the agency to actively surveil and detain individuals suspected of carrying the illness—indefinitely.
That’s just the headline – YOWZA!!!!
The rest of the article is just as hyperbolic. Klippenstein’s reporting centers on the US Customs and Border Protection Operations Plan for Pandemic Response, which he helpfully and fortunately posts in pdf form at the bottom of the article. If you want to read Klippenstein’s article, click through, but the good news for you, as well as for everyone else in the US, is that Klippenstein misreported what CBP’s operations plan (OPLAN) allows them to do during a pandemic, as well as what they’re actually supposed to plan to do. I know this because 1) I actually read all 277 pages of the document, including all of the annexes (these will be important in just a phrase or two), 2) I know how to read US government planning documents because I’ve contributed to a bunch on the Army and DOD side of things over the years, and 3) all the actual important stuff is almost always in the appendices so as not to clutter up the core document with things that only apply to specific units or sections.
Klippenstein reports that:
Titled “Operations Plan for Pandemic Response” and marked for official use only, the document was drafted during the avian flu pandemic of 2007. It’s a blunt statement of authority, describing Customs and Border Patrol overseeing potential tent cities of quarantined detainees at the border and coordinating with unspecified intelligence agencies—both foreign and domestic—as well as the Pentagon.
Though the plan was drafted during the Bush administration, it remains CBP’s most recent pandemic response plan and is still in effect, according to a Department of Homeland Security source who provided The Nation with the document. A memo dated February 28 of this year, signed by CBP’s Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan and reviewed by The Nation, made reference to the pandemic response plan.
“Be assured, CBP is ready,” Morgan wrote. “We have a CBP national pandemic plan as well as continuity of operations plans.”
The document contains a number of startling assumptions, like the following: “Pandemic influenza…may challenge the essential stability of governments and society.”
Provided a copy of the document, Katherine Hawkins, senior legal analyst with the Project on Government Oversight, expressed concerns about how the administration might use these powers on immigrants.
“Given the [Trump] administration’s animus for noncitizens, I worry a lot about what they would do with these authorities even when those authorities make sense for a government to have in a public health crisis,” Hawkins said.
Her concerns appear well founded, as the document makes repeated reference to CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) role in transferring and detaining infected travelers—at one point alluding to “tent cities” erected for such a purpose.
The document states: “Due to the distance from CDC Quarantine Stations, some [CBP] locations will require areas designated for medical segregation to safely detain travelers potentially infected with the pandemic flu virus, thereby, helping prevent the spread of the virus to other detainees, travelers, and CBP employees.”
And: “CBP Directors of Field Operations and Chief Patrol Agents will jointly inventory their detention and isolation facilities, and identify other areas that may be utilized for these purposes, e.g., ‘tent cities’ with portable latrines.”
All of this sounds terribly dystopian until one reads the annexes. What the annexes make clear is that there is nothing in here that shouldn’t be. Every single reference in the two most applicable annexes – the first two: Intel and Operations – is always in regards to Centers for Disease Control (CDC) orders or Public Health Service orders or in terms of being in support of or seconded to assist either or both of those agencies. As in CBP will not make a decision to quarantine someone trying to enter the US. Rather they will make an initial determination that someone might need to be, then consult either the CDC or Public Health officer on site or if one is not on site, then via telephone, and then follow the instructions from CDC and/or Public Health. The actions delineated in these annexes include CBP using their preexisting protocols for travelers entering the US during times of non-medical emergency that arrive at points of entry who are ill, appear to be ill, or are traveling from some place with an outbreak of a specific disease. These include using preexisting contracted medically secure transport to appropriate pre-identified permanent or temporary facilities where treatment and observation can be conducted. And this rolls into the intel function. Passive collection is defined as the routine entry questionnaires and observing the person seeking to enter the US. Active collection is done under orders of the CDC and/or Public Health and includes taking temperatures and other diagnostics under CDC/Public Health officer direction. It isn’t setting up a stakeout, following someone, having them tracked by drone or spy satellite, or anything else nefarious. The breakdowns over the weekend were clearly from not having both enough Customs and Immigration officers in place, as well as not enough CDC and/or Public Health officials to do the screenings.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t trust CBP as far as I can throw them right now given how they’ve politicized themselves in support of the President and his racist agenda. As they ACLU has documented, Customs & Border Protection claim jurisdiction, under Federal regulations, over everything in the US within 100 miles of the border/coast and within 100 miles of every international port of entry (airports that receive international flights). As the ACLU states, at least 2/3 of all Americans live within 100 miles of the border, the coast, and/or 100 miles of an international port of entry. Moreover, CBP claims that these Federal regulations suspend portions of the Constitution, which is why the ACLU is rightly concerned about this and monitors it. And when we get reporting that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), CBP’s sibling organization, is still conducting its stepped up raids in sanctuary cities, which will make it less likely that undocumented immigrants will seek medical care or other assistance, it only reinforces everyone’s suspicions. However, in regard to what Klippinstein has reported, I just don’t see anything in CBP pandemic OPLAN that shouldn’t be there or should freak anyone out. In fact this is a very soberly written and appropriate contingency and crisis action planning document.
Just a quick related note: a lot of people are asking about or worried about or, in some cases sending hoax tests and tweets, about whether the President will order a national/nation-wide quarantine or lockdown order. I’ll have more on this in a subsequent post, but the President doesn’t have this power despite declaring a national emergency for the novel Coronavirus and COVID-19. The short reason for this is that the national emergency declaration for the novel Coronavirus and COVID-19 is rooted in the Stafford Act and the Stafford Act does not give the President the power to order a nation wide quarantine or lock down.
Open thread!
trollhattan
Amplify Trump’s powers? Great, just what the doctor [cough] ordered. I hope John Roberts is sleeping well, I know Bill Barr sure is.
Is a coastline technically a border?
Adam L Silverman
@trollhattan: Yes, yes it is.
Mike in NC
There were photos of huge airport crowds, packed together like sardines, waiting several hours to claim luggage and get through Customs. What could possibly be a problem there?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
What powers would declaring martial law give the President, Adam?
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Significant ones. But he’s not going to declare martial law for this. It took them till today to get him to be serious enough about the problem that he didn’t make a complete fool of himself at the update press conference.
Adam L Silverman
@Mike in NC: The problem is that that happened and it shouldn’t have.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
I thereby demand the Border Patrol direct all their efforts into stanching the ongoing otter invasion, though cute they may be.
Cheryl Rofer
Ken Klippenstein is one of those people whose tweets (when retweeted into my timeline; I don’t follow him) catch my eye, and then I see it’s Klippenstein and move on.
Gin & Tonic
Or, as your senior Senator says, “marshall law.” Or maybe “marital law.”
I have Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse. You have Marco Rubio and Rick Scott. I’ll try to stifle my laughter.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
infectious disease specialist (Dr Ian Lipkin, Columbia) on Maddow calling for a national lockdown order
I am… troubled.
FelonyGovt
This whole situation is seeming more dystopian. My friend lives in San Mateo County, CA and just received this about the shelter in place order . I’m a lawyer used to reading this kind of prose and still my eyes glazed over.
Duane
@Adam L Silverman: Trumpov is simply incoherent from one day to the next. He’s a fool, and a liar, everyday. 25th amendment the imbecile now before it’s too late.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: Cause if you let the otters get a foothold, next the bears will come.
mali muso
So had Trump not misspoken about the Europe travel “ban” during his speech, I wonder if the resultant chaos might have been a little less. Even though the DHS put out a tweet pretty shortly on the heels of the speech ending, within minutes I was already getting messages about how we needed to try to evacuate our study abroad students within 24 hours so that they would be let back into the country. Wondering if the airlines would have had a bit more time to slowly cut back on flights if the stream of Americans coming back had been a bit more gradual.
Adam L Silverman
The shelter in place brisket is done! Tomorrow I will make the shelter in place, sweetened only with agave, chocolate cheesecake.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@FelonyGovt:
After my shift, I was in the supermarket and I overheard some lady comment that she felt like she was in a movie. That’s about where I am right now too
trollhattan
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
There otter be a law!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Adam L Silverman:
I hope you’re right. What did you think of Matt Gaetz little stunt with that gas mask last week?
NotMax
Does the term SNAFU ring a bell?
trollhattan
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Cohen brothers or Michael Bay? Makes a yuge difference.
trollhattan
@NotMax:
I FUBAR’d my SNAFU.
Gin & Tonic
@FelonyGovt: Six-plus pages of single-spaced legalese. I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that approximately 0% of the residents of San Mateo County will do as directed and “read this Order carefully.”
Who the fuck are these people and what world do they inhabit?
FelonyGovt
@Adam L Silverman: I’m planning to make some shelter in place vegetable barley soup. And Meyer lemon muffins.
lamh36
So I was a bit confused…the Ohio primary is back on?
I mean from a infection control perspective. its not a “gathering”. Yes you’re standing in line, but you don’t have to stand right upon a person. You can actually stand 3 ft away. Also too, the voting booths are seperated. It’s not a caucus. You have about the same risk as when If go to the grocery store and stand in those lines to purchase items for self quarantining. Unlike other states where there is more time to mail out blaltos and cancel poll stations and workers, these primaries were too close
lamh36
Oh and before anyone asks, yes I heard about BAE Idris.
The number of folks tha mentioned it to me or tagged me or text me bout it was hilarious but I guess I made an impression with my love of Idris…LOL
bbleh
Of course, that he does not have those powers does not mean that he might not decide to claim them anyway, perhaps because some whisperer suggests that he does. And in any case he certainly would like to believe he has them, which in his mind is almost indistinguishable from actively believing that he does.
And given the kneejerk cheerleading from his cultists and the rightwing media, the usual dithering of the Democrats, the predictable bothsiderism of the MSM, and the careful tiptoeing away by the courts, there’s no saying he couldn’t get away with exercising them.
The law, in the end, is words on paper. Without the political force to back it up, it’s little more than academic.
trollhattan
@lamh36:
Your areas of expertise are so well known, it must be flattering. :-)
He’ll be fine!
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Instant Pot chicken cacciatore tonight, if I can muster the energy to put it together. Ought to be enough to last 4 days.
90 minutes sleep last night, late afternoon nap penciled in.
Ken
Lawyers.
Ah, now there you’ve got me.
EDIT: No, I take that back. They inhabit this world, and because they are lawyers they know damned well that unless they cover every contingency, some idiot will try to argue that they don’t have to follow the instructions, like a six-year-old saying “you said I couldn’t have a cupcake, so I had three.”
Matt
My mother, in her mid 70s, has been visiting us (and only us) and is due to leave Montreal for the US this Saturday via Toronto Pearson. Anybody here think it’s a good idea to leave earlier? (I know, mistakes have been made.)
Bill Arnold
Cheryl’s cautions about single papers noted, but watch for reactions to this paper. Gizmodo link for people who don’t want to read the paper. (Perhaps linked already today.)
Covid-19 Is Spreading Far and Wide From People Who Don’t Feel Sick, New Research Finds (Ed Cara, 16 Mar 2020)
References a new study:
Substantial undocumented infection facilitates the rapid dissemination of novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV2) (Ruiyun Li, Sen Pei, Bin Chen, Yimeng Song, Tao Zhang, Wan Yang, Jeffrey Shaman, 16 Mar 2020)
and full of caveats/notes of caution:
smedley the uncertain
@NotMax: Ding, Ding, Ding…
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: Every time Rubio tweets I consider running against him in a couple of years. Then I realize I’d likely turn the debate into a bloodsport and the thought passes.
Bill Arnold
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
You saw John’s quip (last night?)?
“If you are out of necessities, go to the grocery store in off hours and treat it like you are an extra in the Stand.”
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Infectious disease specialist does not make now a Federal law specialist.
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Doofy, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life. It is, apparently, a good way to get elected to Congress if one lives in a solidly Republican district.
Adam L Silverman
@FelonyGovt: I had a grand uncle named Meyer.
Adam L Silverman
@lamh36: Your knowledge of laboratory testing procedures are just the thing you need to win his heart!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@trollhattan:
Oh god, nothing by Micheal Bay! What have the Cohen brothers written/directed? They sound familar, so I’ve probably watched some of their stuff
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: That’s not sleep. That’s barely a nap.
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: I would not only contribute to your campaign, I’d buy a pay-per-view to watch your debate (because I’m certainly not going to go to Florida.)
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: It won’t happen. I’m not the person you want running for public office.
FlyingToaster
Up heah in the Commonwealth of
MassachusettsQuarantine, we had our “go pick up your shit from school” day (as in we stopped by HomeDepot en route and bought a bin and emptied WarriorGirl’s locker into it).Virtual Middle School starts at 8:45am. She is SO NOT READY, which is fine. The school-issue Chromebook has a broken camera, which leaves her with the vastly superior 11th Birthday Chromebook, complete with stylus and touchscreen. She hasn’t cleared the table, she hasn’t moved things to the new bin… sigh. Tomorrow morning will really suck.
This is going to suck. There’s absolutely no way on earth to avoid the essential suckage of the next 3 weeks. Various of our normal suppliers are closed (sob, Ranc’s), all of the diners are shuttered, we’re hoping not to get a total lockdown so that places like our bakery and coffee roaster are still able to operate.
HerrDoktor’s set up in the basement; I’ll be supervising the middle schooler, doing the provisioning, and laundry and dishes and whatnot.
Deep Breath…
Mnemosyne
G and I will both be working from home starting tomorrow. Pray for us. ??
I do have my own space, but it’s disastrously cluttered right now, so I’m going to have to spend some time tonight and tomorrow getting it straightened up enough to use. At least I was able to borrow a laptop from work, so I should be able to get some shit done.
Mnemosyne
@Adam L Silverman:
I scored the last corned beef at the closest supermarket this afternoon. Now I need to look for Instant Pot recipes for said slab o’ meat.
The grocery store was a little picked over, but not post-apocalyptic. The worst thing that happened was that I tried to use the self checkout but forgot that I had beer in my basket, which must be checked out by a real person because stupid underage kids ruin everything.
trollhattan
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Arguably [me, arguing] the most important filmmakers of the last 3+ decades.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coen_brothers_filmography
Bought a Cohen box set a few years ago and it’s horribly out of date now.
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: I have to go out for blueberries and strawberries tomorrow for my smoothies. But other than that, I’m well provisioned.
Mnemosyne
@trollhattan:
Just for you. ?
https://memeshappen.com/media/created/250/YOU-OTTER-WASH-YOUR-HANDS-meme-57355.jpg
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@trollhattan:
Oh yeah, I definitely watched their stuff:
O Brother, Where for Art Thou and Bridge of Spies
They were fantastic!
Gin & Tonic
@Mnemosyne: My employer has gone to “largely” work from home. Limited technical staff may remain on site for support purposes – since I was practicing “social distancing” long before it was cool, I’ve elected, for now, to go in. I’ve tried working from home and it’s not for me. Now I get to go to a mostly empty office and have even less likelihood of contact with other humans.
I will have to put on pants, though.
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
That’s gonna be me if LMM is diagnosed with it. He has two small children and older parents, so hopefully he won’t be.
Gin & Tonic
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Bridge of Spies was a Spielberg! film!, starring Tom Hanks in the role of Tom Hanks, and playing very fast and loose with the events surrounding the Berlin Wall (although it did have a Coen brothers screenplay.)
I am not a Spielberg fan, and found little to like in the movie other than the masterful Mark Rylance.
Sister Golden Bear
@Adam L Silverman: We could make it fairer, and simply have a cage match. Rubio would have better odds, right? //
trollhattan
@Mnemosyne:
Most excellent! :-)
John Oliver blessed us with a handwashing hamster.
Mnemosyne
@Gin & Tonic:
They’re closing our particular building, so I couldn’t go in if I wanted to. Unlike with live action production, there’s a whole lot that can be done remotely in animation production, and they want people to be able to keep working and not make each other sick.
The annoying part is that because I’m not in production, I’m lowest on the priority list for a VPN connection, so there are job functions I will not be able to do from home, like, at all. Which sucks.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Gin & Tonic:
That’s fair. I do like Tom Hanks and Spielberg movies. What did it get wrong?
Adam L Silverman
@Sister Golden Bear: A cage match is still a type of small “b” bloodsport. And no, he wouldn’t stand any better chance.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Adam L Silverman
@Sister Golden Bear: I’m a big fan of Grave Consequences!
Jeffro
So, shorter version: let’s not “hire” an incompetent, corrupt moron again for the highest office in the land?
Totally down with that.
Gin & Tonic
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Let’s start with the wintry scenes (blowing snow, soldiers in greatcoats) of the wall’s construction – it was built in August-September of 1961.
Somewhere in the B-J archives is a post I wrote after seeing the movie when it ran in theaters. I’m not going to hunt for it.
MoCA Ace
Just got off the phone with my daughter who is already going stir crazy SIPing with irresistibly cute evil toddler and irresistibly hansom, scheming, enabling older brother. Anyhow she was talking to a college friend who is one of Milwaukee’s first confirmed cases. Apparently she traveled back to the US with flue like symptoms (none of it hidden) and went to doctors here. Tested negative for flue and had to wait days while demanding a COVID19 test. When she finally got one it came back positive and she was told to go home and self quarantine. Nobody in a medical or official capacity has asked about her contacts or travels since she returned… Nobody.
They have shit the bed so bad on this I have a feeling that in two or three weeks we will be asking Italy to hold our beer.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Gin & Tonic:
I wasn’t expecting you to. I was just asking to make conversation and because I was curious
sdhays
@Gin & Tonic: All I can say is that while watching it, I felt like I’d seen it before. Of course, after watching the trailer, I felt like I had already seen it (and I pretty much had).
sdhays
@Jeffro: Stop being so partisan! //
evap
I made it back home yesterday after a 3 week trip in Europe (Germany and Ireland) and I experienced the new border crossing for myself. I flew from Dublin to Boston and so went through “pre-clearance” (customs and immigration) in Dublin airport. It was a 6 hour ordeal to get on my flight, most of which was spent in non-moving lines. Because I had been in a “bad” country (Germany), I had to do the CONVID-19 screening and the whole thing was just ridiculous. The room for secondary screening could only hold about 50 people and so the screening consisted of standing/sitting in a line with hundreds of people which did not move for almost 3 hours. Then a group of us were escorted to the holding area, I was there for more than 2 hours. The screening consisted of a 3 minute conversation with an agent who asked me where I had been, asked me if I had a cough or fever, and asked me if I had been near anyone who was sick. They weren’t taking temperatures. Then another long wait and I was handed my passport and allowed to go to my gate. Apparently, the CDC had to approve each person individually so agents were in communication with CDC people.
The airlines were all holding the flights until as many people as possible got through screening, my flight took off 5 hours after its scheduled time. The people not subject to screening (those who had only been in Ireland or the UK) had to sit on the plane for many hours while they waited for the rest of us. I think a couple of people on my flight did not make it, I was lucky in that I got in line at 7 am for a 9:30 am flight and so made it through.
The border patrol agents and security people were a mix of Americans and Irish and they were all calm and friendly. They handed out bottles of water and escorted people in line to the toilet as needed. One of the U.S. agents made a speech and essentially told us that he knew the whole thing was moronic, but they had to do it by law.
Many of the people trying to get back to the U.S. were students being sent home from study abroad programs. Some of the people in line had tried the previous day, which was the first day of the screening, and missed their flight because it took 6+ hours to get through screening. I was told that it was much more chaotic the first day.
Anyway, I am home now, thank goddess!
John omniadeo
You think that one is bad? Here is San Francisco. Check out the actual health and penal codes cited.
Read the full Public Health Order here.