Perhaps
now that your leading military people are saying the same thing, you'll act!
Ben Ferro
benferro@insideins.com
U.S.
General Warns Ebola Could Cross U.S. Southern Border
By Stephen Dinan and Dave Boyer - The Washington Times - Thursday, October 9, 2014
The
military’s top official responsible for Latin America says he’s concerned illegal
immigrants from West Africa could already be sneaking across the porous southern
border carrying Ebola, adding a new potential danger the White House will have
to grapple with.
Already,
lawmakers on Capitol Hill have panned President Obama’s new proposal to start
taking the temperature of passengers arriving from West Africa at five U.S. airports.
The
bipartisan group of congressmen told Mr. Obama to issue a full-blown travel ban
prohibiting citizens of affected countries from entering the U.S. , and imposing a quarantine on any
travelers who arrive from West Africa .
But legal
channels may not be the only vulnerability. Marine Corps Gen. John F. Kelly,
commander of U.S. Southern Command, said he was in Costa Rica last week and
encountered an embassy employee who’d run across a handful of Liberian men
preparing to be smuggled into the U.S. as illegal immigrants.
“Anything
can ride on the network,” Gen. Kelly said this week at the National Defense University in Washington .
He said
the danger is two-fold: Not only might illegal immigrants from Africa enter the
U.S. unchecked, but if Ebola spreads to Central America it could spark a new
wave of illegal immigration to the U.S. that would make this summer’s surge
“look like a small problem.”
“If Ebola
breaks out in Haiti or in Central America , I think it is literally ‘Katie
bar the door’ in terms of the mass migration of Central Americans into the United States ,” the general said.
Homeland
Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Thursday defended the steps he’s taken so
far, which will soon include U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents giving
closer scrutiny at five U.S. airports to travelers from the
three most heavily affected West African countries. Officers will be asked to
take the temperature of travelers to try to spot fever, which is one of the
early symptoms of the disease.
Mr.
Johnson said only about 150 people a day come from Liberia , Guinea and Sierra Leone , and more than 90 percent of them
go through the five international airports he’s targeted in New Jersey , New York , Virginia , Georgia and Illinois .
The
secretary also issued a pointed plea to reporters to show “responsibility” in
their reporting and avid coverage “that is certain to feed the flames of fear,
anxiety and suspicion.”
But both
Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill said more needs to be done to push
the nation’s barrier against Ebola overseas, rather than meeting it in U.S. airports.
“Until
this disease is controlled and wiped out, the president should begin a ban on
air travel to and from infected regions of Africa ,” said Rep. Dennis Ross, one of
the lawmakers to sign a letter to Mr. Obama demanding the changes.
The
letter-writers pointed out that 27 African countries have already taken those
steps, “but the United States inexplicably has not.”
One
Liberian man who entered the U.S. on a visa and was later diagnosed
with Ebola died earlier this week in Texas .
The House
Homeland Security Committee will hold a field hearing in Dallas on Friday to examine that case and
look at whether Mr. Johnson, the Centers for Disease Control and other federal
agencies are doing enough.
The Obama
administration has said an outbreak in the U.S. is not likely, but most Americans
disagree, with 62 percent of those surveyed in a new Reason-Rupe poll saying
they expect one.
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