The US President Donald Trump’s administration intends to stop detaining people illegally crossing the border with Mexico and immediately return them to their homeland, The New York Times reported.

According to the newspaper, the administration believes it is necessary to combat the coronavirus pandemic since many migrants crossing the border are already sick or do not have documents proving that they are healthy.

Checkpoints will remain open for US citizens, green card holders and foreigners with the necessary documents. These points will be open for commercial transport as well.

As reported earlier, the number of people infected with coronavirus in the US exceeded five thousand. The death toll has reached over 100. Meanwhile, 82 cases of infection were recorded in Mexico.

The World Health Organization said on March 11 that coronavirus is a pandemic. Over 179 thousand people in more than 150 countries have already been infected worldwide, most of them have recovered and over 7.4 thousand have died.