Virus measures bring significant drop in illegal border crossings

WASHINGTON — Illegal border crossings have dropped by half as the strictest U.S.-Mexico border policies yet went into place amid the coronavirus pandemic, but there was confusion about how it was all working.

Anyone caught crossing the border illegally is to be immediately returned back to Mexico or Canada, according to the new restrictions based on an order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention late Friday. According to Mark Morgan, the acting head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the decision applies to all migrants.

“We’re not going to take you into our custody,” he told Fox News. “We don’t know anything about you. You have no documents, we’re not going to take you into our facilities and expose you to CBP personnel and the American people as well as immigrants.”

But Mexican officials have said they would only take people from Mexico and Central America and only those who are encountered straight away — not people already in custody. Officials later said the elderly and minors won’t be taken back and that they expected to take in about 100 per day.

“If people who are not Mexican or Central American are returned to us, Mexico would not accept them,” said Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard. “The United States will take care of that.”

The majority of people crossing the border are from Central America, but not all. For example, there were some 6,000 Brazilians and nearly 1,200 Chinese who arrived between January and February this year, according to Customs and Border Protection data.

But it’s not entirely clear what happens to those people. Morgan said the migrants should be “expeditiously” returned to the country they came from.

CDC on Friday issued an order in effect for 30 days that bars anyone coming illegally...