King Calls for Travel Ban

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For Immediate Release –
October 17, 2014

Austin, TX – Representative Phil King (R-Weatherford) calls for an immediate ban on all commercial flights traveling from foreign destinations where Ebola is a crisis issue.

“The simple truth is, had we had a flight ban in place, we would not have people infected from Dallas today,” said Phil King, State Representative for HD 61.

Today, a letter was sent to President Barack Obama signed by Representative King and 45 other Texas legislators urging the President and Congress to work to institute a travel ban to ensure that no further cases of Ebola are brought to the United States.

To view the full text of the letter, click HERE.

October 16, 2014

The Honorable Barack Obama

President of the United States of America

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President,

Texas is home to a limited but very serious outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus. Our state is the site of the only two known human-to-human transmissions of the disease in the history of the United States. As such, we request that you use your authority to institute a ban on direct commercial travel to the United States from foreign destinations where Ebola is a crisis issue (chiefly many Western African nations). We further request that you use your authority to prohibit travel to the United States if the traveler’s journey began or involved a stop in a country where Ebola is a crisis issue.

Two health care professionals in Dallas are currently suffering from Ebola, and many more individuals who came into contact with those confirmed to be infected with the virus are being monitored. The situation simply cannot be made worse by additional instances of the Ebola virus being brought to the United States from Western African nations.

As you know, the two confirmed cases both resulted from an Ebola-infected Liberian citizen, Thomas Eric Duncan, traveling to the United States via Belgium to visit family in Dallas on September 20. It has been widely reported that Mr. Duncan showed no signs of having contracted Ebola when he made his journey to the United States. It is for this reason that a travel ban is appropriate: without such a ban it is probable that other individuals who have contracted the virus but who show no symptoms will travel to, and enter the United States. The ban must apply to direct travel from nations where Ebola is a crisis issue, and to journeys that began or involved a stop in such countries.

As elected officials, our first duty is to protect the safety of those we represent. Preventing a public health crisis by ensuring that individuals who may have contracted Ebola are not able to travel to the United States is an essential part of this duty. Therefore, we respectfully request that you work urgently with the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to ensure that no further cases of Ebola are brought to the United States via commercial air travel from countries where the virus is a crisis issue.

Sincerely,