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AZ AG Brnovich: Exempting Illegal Immigrants from Vax Mandate 'Clearly' Violates Equal Protection Clause

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On Tuesday’s “Mark Levin Show,” Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) discussed the state’s lawsuit against the federal vaccine mandate and said the government, “systematically, in a perverse irony, saying that if you’re here illegally, if you’ve illegally crossed the border of the United States, you don’t have to get the vaccine, but yet American citizens are going to be required to get the vaccine” is a clear violation of the Equal Protection Clause.

Brnovich said, “Basically, we filed a lawsuit today, the first against the Biden administration’s unconstitutional COVID vaccine mandates. As you know, Mark, the Biden administration has issued an executive order and they have said they’re going to propose some rules regarding mandating vaccines for — it’ll affect probably more than 100 million Americans. So, we want to do everything we can to push back. So, we filed a lawsuit today saying that this mandate is inconsistent with the Constitution. It violates the 10th Amendment. It’s a — violates traditional principles of federalism…and furthermore, as a result of them systematically, in a perverse irony, saying that if you’re here illegally, if you’ve illegally crossed the border of the United States, you don’t have to get the vaccine, but yet American citizens are going to be required to get the vaccine. So, clearly, that’s a violation of the Equal Protection Clause.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for 100 million Americans doesn't apply to illegal immigrants

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President Joe Biden announced on Thursday a sweeping COVID-19 vaccination mandate for roughly 100 million Americans, but did not institute mandatory vaccinations for illegal immigrants.

“We’ve been patient. But our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us,” Biden declared, placing blame on the 80 million Americans who have not been vaccinated.

“Nearly three-quarters of the eligible have gotten at least one shot, but one quarter has not gotten any,” Biden continued to scold those who are not fully vaccinated. “That’s nearly 80 million Americans not vaccinated. And in a country as large as ours, that’s 25% minority. That 25% can cause a lot of damage — and they are.”

Biden again attacked vaccine-hesitant Americans, “The unvaccinated overcrowd our hospitals, are overrunning the emergency rooms and intensive care units, leaving no room for someone with a heart attack, or pancreatitis, or cancer.”

Biden reprimanded unvaccinated Americans, who are “supported by a distinct minority of elected officials,” and accused them of “keeping us from turning the corner.”

Biden’s six-point “Path Out of the Pandemic” plan will force U.S. employers with more than 100 employees to require their workers to get the COVID-19 vaccination or mandate weekly testing for coronavirus. Businesses that fail to follow through with Biden’s order can face fines of up to $14,000 issued by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

All federal workers and millions of contractors who do business with the federal government will be required to be fully vaccinated. COVID-19 vaccinations are compulsory for the over 17 million health care workers at hospitals and health care settings that participate in Medicare and Medicaid.

Biden also called on large entertainment venues to require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test for people to enter.

The president also called for all states to adopt vaccine mandates for all school employees.

Biden doubled the fines on Americans who refuse to wear masks in airports, airplanes, trains, maritime vessels, and intercity buses.

Amidst Biden’s wave of new measures to attempt to decrease the spread of COVID-19, noticeably missing from his plan was requiring illegal immigrants to get vaccinated against coronavirus.

HHS and the CDC require immigrants to receive certain vaccines before they are admitted into the United States:

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regulations require that all immigrant applicants receive a medical exam. During the exam, applicants are required to show proof that they have received certain vaccines. If an applicant does not have proof of having received the required vaccines, the law states that the vaccines must be given at the time of the medical exam.

However, the list of required vaccines does not include COVID-19 vaccinations:

  • Mumps
  • Measles
  • Rubella
  • Polio
  • Tetanus and diphtheria
  • Pertussis
  • Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib)
  • Hepatitis A
  • Hepatitis B
  • Rotavirus
  • Meningococcal disease
  • Varicella
  • Pneumococcal disease
  • Seasonal influenza

An Axios report from July claimed that 30% of illegal immigrants in custody of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

“The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) continues its vaccination efforts to include voluntary vaccinations for individuals in the care and custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),” an ICE spokesperson told Axios in July.

ICE reported over 27,000 COVID-19 infections among illegal immigrants in its custody since coronavirus testing began in February 2020. As of Wednesday, there are 851 confirmed COVID-19 cases among detainees who are currently under isolation or monitoring.

The city of McAllen, Texas, said in August there have been more than 7,000 confirmed COVID-19-positive migrants released into the city since February.

Based on a Kaiser Family Foundation survey from May, only 31% of “potentially undocumented” immigrants in the United States got the COVID-19 vaccine. Nearly 54% of Americans are fully vaccinated.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered about 210,000 migrants at the southern border in July, reaching a number not seen in more than two decades.

Biden administration can't find at least one-third of illegal immigrant children it released into US

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The Biden administration continues to face massive criticism — from both Republicans and Democrats — for its botched handling of the illegal immigration crisis at the southern U.S. border, where hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens have flooded into the country since President Joe Biden’s inauguration.

One of the many criticisms against the White House’s approach to the issue has been its insistence on releasing illegal aliens in to the country after apprehension. Part of the administration’s plan includes placing “unaccompanied minors” with sponsors in the U.S. These are children whom the government is supposed to keep tabs on — for their safety and for the sake of the immigration system.

But a new report from Axios this week revealed that the feds have failed miserably in keeping track of these minors: The government has lost contact with at least a third of them.

What’s happening?

The numbers of illegal aliens slipping into the U.S. has spiked in recent months. In July alone, more than 212,000 migrants were detained along the Mexico border, the Washington Post reported last month. And that figure does not include the unknown number of illegals who successfully evaded authorities.

Of the migrants detained in July, about 19,000 were unaccompanied minors, the Post said. This is in addition to the 65,000 unaccompanied children detained the first five months of 2021.

With the surge in child migrants, the government has opted to place thousands of these kids with relatives or other pre-approved sponsors. The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement has a published order of preference for sponsors:

ORR releases children to a sponsor in the following order of preference: parent; legal guardian; an adult relative (brother, sister, aunt, uncle, grandparent or first cousin); an adult individual or entity designated by the parent or legal guardian (through a signed declaration or other document that ORR determines is sufficient to establish the signatory’s parental/guardian relationship); a licensed program willing to accept legal custody; or an adult individual or entity seeking custody when it appears that there is no other likely alternative to long term ORR care and custody.

The ORR requires that care providers who place children with sponsors are queried to “conduct a Safety and Well Being Follow Up Call with an unaccompanied alien child and his or her sponsor 30 days after the release date” in order to make sure the “child is still residing with the sponsor, is enrolled in or attending school, is aware of upcoming court dates, and is safe.”

The providers are required to document the calls, including whether or not the provider is able to contact the sponsor or the child.

Axios filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the data after the government refused to share information about whether it had actually been making the required 30-day follow-up calls.

Turns out the situation is pretty grim.

According to the data culled by Axios, iin the first five months of 2021, care providers made 14,600 calls to check in with the minors released from HHS shelters to approved sponsors. In 4,890 of those cases — 33% — providers were not able to reach the child or the sponsor.

The share of unsuccessful calls grew from 26% in January to 37% in May, Axios said.

As the outlet noted, the summer migration surge “suggests the problem of losing track of released children could be compounded in the months to come.”

Making matters even worse, the data Axios received indicated that the government has not been calling as frequently as it is required to.

“Between President Biden’s inauguration and the end of May, HHS discharged 32,000 children and teens — but the government placed fewer than 15,000 follow-up calls, according to the FOIA response,” Axios said, adding, “In both March and April, the number of kids discharged was twice as high as the number of check-in calls the following month — indicating that half of the released kids might not have gotten a 30-day call, according to public agency data.”