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U.S. authorities have dramatically expanded their Ebola prevention measures, temporarily banning green card holders from entering the country if they have visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan within the last 21 days.

The new order, issued Friday by the Department of Homeland Security, goes beyond previous restrictions that only applied to non-U.S. passport holders. Lawful permanent residents — many with deep family ties and long-term lives in America — are now subject to the same entry prohibitions for an initial 30-day period.

The move comes as the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola continues spreading in eastern DRC, with the World Health Organization raising the risk of a national outbreak to “very high” and declaring it an international emergency.

Resource Strain and Public Health Concerns

Health officials cited “resource constraints” in managing quarantinable diseases, noting that containing outbreaks on U.S. soil requires specialized facilities with limited capacity. Eighteen people are currently in quarantine at the University of Nebraska following exposure risks from the hantavirus-plagued MV Hondius cruise ship.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized last week that preventing Ebola from reaching American shores is the top priority: “We can’t have Ebola cases coming here.”

The Real Story

This aggressive expansion of travel restrictions marks a significant escalation in the U.S. response to the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa. While the goal is clearly to protect public health, the decision to include green card holders — people who have already gone through rigorous vetting and built lives in the United States — raises serious questions about fairness, family separation, and the balance between security and humanitarian concerns.

For legal immigrants with family in the affected regions, this policy could create heartbreaking dilemmas. At the same time, the move underscores growing anxiety in Washington about the virus’s potential to spread globally, especially as violence in the DRC has disrupted treatment centers and burial protocols.

With 10 African countries now considered at risk, the coming weeks will test whether these restrictions prove effective — or if they spark legal challenges and diplomatic tensions while the deadly virus continues its spread on the ground.