(TJVNEWS) New York lawmakers have resurrected a bill from 2015  setting up detention camps that could hold those with infectious diseases or anyone suspected of presenting a “significant threat to public health.”

Assemblyman Nick Perry, however, defended the bill as protection during times of disease.

The Assembly bill, A416, which was first introduced by Assemb. Nick Perry in 2015 and has been reintroduced each year since would allow state officials to detain individuals who are ill from or carriers of a contagious disease. Originally related to Ebola, it was meant to act as a way to quarantine individuals during a pandemic —  predating COVID-19.

The state Senate and Assembly will take up the bill A416(LINK)during the next legislative session, which begins on Jan. 5, 2022.

The legislation gives the governor or the governor’s delegates, which includes heads of local health departments, the power to remove and detain any individuals or groups of people through issuing a single order.

The bill “presents a serious risk to the basic liberties of all Americans in the state of New York, including their right to choose whether or not to receive medical treatment and vaccinations related to thus far undetermined contagious diseases,” Kay Smythe noted in a Dec. 18 analysis for The National Pulse.

The legislation states that no one can be detained for more than 60 days, but allows for court orders to waive the maximum detention time. After 60 days, the court is allowed an additional 90 days to consider the detention of an individual. It sets up “a cycle that can last indefinitely per the opinion of the department,” Smythe wrote.