The U.S. may so far have enjoyed good luck in escaping a direct SARS hit, but officials aren’t leaving anything to chance. The best hope for averting a SARS epidemic at home will be to keep SARS out at the nation’s borders.
Federal immigration laws authorize immigration authorities to exclude non-citizens who are determined to have a “communicable disease of public health significance”. Immigration law also authorizes the President by proclamation to suspend the entry of any group of aliens whose entry he deems to be detrimental to the interests of the United States. This little-used power could be deployed to exclude all aliens from affected areas, a policy Taiwan has recently implementeD、
Under the Public Health ServiceAct, any individual (citizens included) may be quarantined at an international port of entry if they are reasonably believed to be carrying a designated communicable disease.As of anApril 4Executive Order by PresidentBush, SARS is now a designated disease.
Thus, in tandem with airline screening, federal health authorities are carefully monitoring travelers from affected areas inAsia for SARS symptoms. With an estimated 25,000 individuals entering the country legally fromAsia on a daily basis, that is a tall order.
A、single SARS- infected person getting through the net could bring down the border strategy.
The U.S. government might also frontend the border strategy through restrictions on travel byAmerican citizens to affected areas. In a series ofCold War era decisions, the SupremeCourt upheld international travel restrictions for national security reasons, and one can imagine the same rationale applying to a public health emergency. How practical it would be to prohibit—and police—a travel ban to countries such asChina is another question.
The initial SARS defense, then, hinges on effective border control.But U.S. borders are far from under control. There are an estimated 8～9 million undocumented aliens now in the United States, a figure growing by as many as 500,000 per year.Asia is the largest contributor to undocumented immigration outside the western hemisphere, funneling illegal aliens into the United States through elaborate smuggling networks. SARS could just as easily make serious inroads into the U.S. through this backdoor rather than the front.
26. From the first three paragraphs, we learn that .
A、American officials dont see any chance of escaping an immediate SARS hit
B、noncitizens with a disease will be quarantined at the international airport
C、foreigners with a communicable disease may legally be denied entry into the U.S.
D、immigration officers are empowered to keep aliens out of the U.S.
27. Which of the following statements is true according to the text?
A、The President rarely declares a rejection of noncitizens from infected areas.
B、The U.S. is the only lucky country to have kept safe from a SARS attack.
C、The interests of the U.S. are given more legal protection than public health.
D、The Public Health ServiceAct has been brought into effect sinceApril 4.
28. The phrase “a tall order” most probably means .
A、an ambitious planB、a difficult task
C、a careful arrangementD、an illegal decision
29. The author would probably agree that .
A、a SARS hit could be escaped by means of strict monitoring of international travel
B、undocumented immigrants poses a serious threat to national security of U.S.
C、illegal aliens come into the U.S. with the help of complicated smuggling networks
D、American border strategy may fail to attain its goal of avoiding a SARS epidemic
30. The passage is primarily concerned with .
A、the threat of SARS to the national security of U.S.
B、the U.S. border strategy against SARS
C、the problems in U.S. national security
D、the crisis of a public health emergency