After collecting criticism about its poor handling of its first Ebola case, the United States is boosting its efforts to safeguard the American public and has started to require travelers from Ebola hot-spots in West Africa to be rerouted to one of five U.S. airports for enhanced screening.
The Department of Homeland Security has already started screening for possible contacts at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Oct. 11, but the department has expanded screening to four more airports, namely Chicago O'Hare, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, New Jersey's Newark and Washington Dulles International Airports. Screening will include checking travelers' temperatures and interviewing them about possible contacts with people who carried the virus.
"We currently have in place measures to identify and screen anyone at all land, sea and air ports of entry into the United States who we have reason to believe has been present in Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea in the preceding 21 days," says Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.
These five airports, he adds, will account for 94 percent of all travelers flying in from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the three West African countries affected most by the Ebola virus. Johnson also notes that none of these travelers are flying in on a nonstop, direct flight from the countries to the U.S.
The Airlines for America (A4A), a Washington-based trade group, says only nine people, or some 6 percent of the 150 or so people who travel to the U.S. from the three countries every day, will be affected by the new screening requirement, as most of the travelers coming in from the affected nations are already being asked to re-book their flights to arrive at the five airports.
"We are working closely with the airlines to implement these restrictions with minimal travel disruption," Johnson says in a statement. "If not already handled by the airlines, the few impacted travelers should contact the airlines for rebooking, as needed."
Democratic Charles Schumer of New York lauded the department's efforts, saying the the move is "a good and effective step towards tightening the net and further protecting our citizens."
But Republicans do not agree. Representative Bob Goodlatte of Virginia and head of the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives called for more stringent measures, specifically the suspension of all visas from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
"President Obama has a real solution at his disposal under current law and can use it at any time to temporarily ban foreign nationals from entering the United States from Ebola-ravaged countries," Goodlatte says.
The Republican lawmaker refers to the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, which grants the President special powers to ban foreign citizens from the country if their presence would be found "detrimental to the interests of the United States."
Goodlatte also says that the vast majority of Americans support the idea of a temporary blanket travel ban, which President Obama has up to now opposed. An informal poll run by Reuters/Ipsos shows nearly 75 percent of all 1,602 respondents say they are in favor of prohibiting air travel in and out of the Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
