My colleagues and I often criticize the Biden administration’s migration policies — but here’s an exception.
It has decided that, effective October 1, all green card applicants must be fully vaccinated against Covid.
That’s exactly right, but more than a little late. Everybody should be vaccinated, but neither the Trump nor the Biden administration has made it mandatory for all. What the administration ruled is that if you are in the military, you must be fully vaccinated, and some hospital and school operations have similarly demanded vaccination for their workers.
And the requirements of the military and green card applicants have been — in my eyes — laid on months after they should have been.
But in the tradition of this administration, if you can tell Haitian Temporary Protected Status applicants that they have a year and a half to register, then there is an internal logic in postponing the new vaccination rule’s effective date until October 1. Why the delay? If an alien does not meet the requirement, he or she would be not denied the green card, the issuance would simply be postponed until both shots have been received.
Meanwhile, we should be vaccinating everyone we encounter at the Border, whether they are detained or turned back to Mexico. That, too, like the military personnel and the green card applicants, is a captive population and the aliens should have no choice in the matter.
Such a practice would not only be good public health policy for the U.S., it would be a favor to Mexico as well.