NYC Imposes Checkpoints to Check for Out-of-State Quarantine Breakers

Donald Trump visited Florida Friday. If he had flown directly to New York from Florida, he would have been required to quarantine for 14 days. Fortunately for him, Governor Andrew Cuomo just removed the District of Columbia (and Delaware, perhaps anticipating Presidential candidate visits?) from its coronavirus travel advisory list of 34 states and Puerto Rico.

To make sure visitors from covid-hot states aren’t violating quarantine, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is setting up checkpoints in the Big Apple:

The [Department of Finance] Sheriff’s Office, in coordination with other law enforcement agencies, will operate traveler registration checkpoints at major bridge and tunnel crossings into New York City. Starting Thursday, August 6, the Mayor’s Public Engagement Unit will begin outreach at Penn Station to educate travelers about New York State home-quarantine orders. Travelers coming in from these states must complete travel health forms to support contact tracing efforts. The City is also partnering with transportation and tourism companies to direct travelers to complete health forms and educate them about quarantine requirements under state law. The City has also added digital signage at points of entry into the City to increase public awareness of New York State’s registration and quarantine mandates [City of New York, press release, 2020.08.05].

I am no fan of being stopped and quizzed by law enforcement without probable cause. But a pandemic that has killed 50 times as many people in the United States this year as al-Qaeda killed on 9/11 gives states and local governments a lot of constitutional room to take some safety precautions, including monitoring and restriction of travel.

If coronavirus resurges in the nation’s capital and New York adds D.C. back to its advisory list, I’d love to see the White House motorcade stopped and quizzed on the streets as Donald Trump makes his way to another laugh fest at the United Nations. Perhaps the experience would break through his insensitivity and help him understand what it’s like to be treated as a menace simply because one has come from elsewhere.