The United States has temporarily prohibited green-card holders from entering the country if they have traveled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Uganda, or South Sudan within the past 21 days. This measure, announced on Friday, is part of escalating efforts to prevent the Ebola virus from reaching American shores.
Expanded Restrictions
Previously, the travel restriction applied only to individuals without US passports who had visited those nations, with exemptions for US citizens and lawful permanent residents. The new order grants the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or other designated officials the authority to deny entry to certain permanent residents, citing public health interests. The order notes that green-card holders often have stronger ties to communities outside the US, making entry restrictions comparatively less burdensome for them than for US citizens.
Screening and Quarantine Measures
US citizens returning from the affected countries now have a second designated entry point—Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport—in addition to Washington Dulles. The CDC cited resource constraints for containing quarantinable diseases, noting that 18 individuals are currently in a dedicated quarantine unit at the University of Nebraska after being released from a cruise ship affected by hantavirus. The agency emphasized that containing such diseases on US soil requires highly specialized and isolated facilities with limited capacity.
In a statement, the CDC explained that applying this authority to lawful permanent residents for a limited period balances public health protection with emergency response resource management. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated last week that the top priority regarding Ebola is preventing its impact on the United States.
Duration and Context
The entry ban on green-card holders from the African region is initially set for 30 days. The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised the risk of the rare Bundibugyo Ebola strain becoming a national outbreak in the DRC to "very high" and declared the outbreak in the DRC and Uganda an emergency of international concern. WHO reports 82 confirmed cases in the DRC, with seven confirmed deaths, 177 suspected deaths, and nearly 750 suspected cases linked to the Bundibugyo strain.
On Saturday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) identified ten African countries at risk from Ebola: Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Zambia. This comes amid reports of attacks on health centers in eastern DRC, where residents burned part of a treatment facility and 18 suspected cases fled. Another center in Rwampara was burned after family members were prevented from retrieving a body. Authorities in northeastern DRC have banned funeral wakes and gatherings of more than 50 people to curb the virus's spread.
