No, Congressman Crazy, Illegals Aren’t Bringing Ebola

As West Africa is engulfed in the worst Ebola outbreak since the illness was discovered in 1976, some right wing Congressmen are using the crisis to find something else to blame on illegals coming across the southern border.  Congressman Louie Gihmert (R-Tex) led the charge by saying he feared “undocumented Democrats” were crossing the border with the virus.  This, he insists is “not fear mongering”

“Because they see people coming across as undocumented Democrats. And so, they want to keep the surge of people coming in illegally, even though it includes a big spike in Other-Than-Mexicans, OTMs as we call them. It includes a spike in people from countries where terrorism abounds. We have people coming in from countries where Ebola is located.”

Others have followed suit, and now at least two other members of the US House leveled the same charge.  Congressmen Phil Gingrey (R-GA) and Todd Rokita (R-IN).

Other than the blatant racism, there’s a real problem with these disingenuous claims of concern; they miss the point and preclude any real conversation about a very real, global health threat.  This outbreak has killed more people that all the other outbreaks combined.  The World Health Organization (WHO) says they are way behind the ball. There are many, many more cases than have been reported, and it will take a minimum of six to nine months to control.  By then it could have gone all over the place.   And the person (or people) with it won’t cross our southern border, they will fly into NYC or LA.

No, I am not suggesting there is a threat that it will spread here. Most experts think it will come here but our health system can handle it and we can squash it easily.  What I am saying is three (Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone) countries face humanitarian and economic devastation.  There are more than one million people living under quarantine, 50,000 in one Monrovian slum alone (West Point).  The US Congress needs less fear mongering about illegals from the south and more talk of how we can help in a time when we might be the only country with the capacity to do so.

By: Alyson Chadwick

Alyson Chadwick is a political/news junkie and New Yorker transplanted to Washington, DC and currently working in Florida. Her career has included work on five presidential cycles, both sides of Capitol Hill, the 2012 Democratic Convention, Clinton White House, United Nations and multiple local and statewide campaigns. She is also a sad Met fan, which could be the most redundant sentence ever.