President Trump’s travel bans on China and Iran have been critically effective in ensuring that Chinese nationals, Iranian nationals, and recent foreign travelers to each of the two countries are not allowed into the interior of the United States in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
On January 31, Trump announced a travel ban on Chinese nationals and foreign travelers who had visited China within the last 14 days. About a month later, while China failed to contain the coronavirus, Trump expanded the travel ban to include Iran, where more than 500 have died from the Wuhan, China virus.
The travel bans were issued after consultations with the nation’s leading medical experts who have said barring international travel from highly-affected regions is critical to containment in the U.S.
Newly released federal data obtained by Breitbart News reveals that between February 2 and March 12, about 237 Chinese nationals, Iranian nationals, and foreign travelers have successfully been kept from entering the U.S. through land ports of entry thanks to the travel bans.
The data does not include the number of Europeans and recent foreign travelers who will have been kept from entering the U.S. because that travel ban goes into effect on Friday, March 13.
“We are grateful for the president’s decisive actions to minimize health risks to Americans, help slow the spread of the virus, and keep potential threats out of the country,” a senior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official told Breitbart News.
While the Trump administration has implemented the travel bans and stopped most migration from highly-affected coronavirus countries, about 220 House Democrats have sought to strip the president of his authority to enact travel bans.
The “No Ban Act,” introduced by Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) would have prevented Trump from immediately implementing a travel ban on China once the outbreak of the coronavirus spread past its origins of Wuhan.
Instead, the No Ban Act would have allowed travelers from Wuhan, Iran, Italy, and all of Europe to continue to arrive in the U.S. while the president received guidance from Congress.
The leading 2020 Democrats for president, Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), have both vowed not to implement travel bans if they are president — even in cases like the rapid spread of the coronavirus. Biden’s “combat coronavirus” plan did not include a single travel ban — not even for Wuhan, where the virus originated — while Sanders has explicitly said he would not close the nation’s borders to any country if elected president.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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