Come One, Come All Diseases
October 6, 2014
DON VINCENZO writes:
Given my time spent overseas in six different U.S. embassies, my first reaction to Eric Duncan’s arrival in this country and subsequent hospitalization with Ebola was to raise this question: how did this man ever get a visa to travel here legally in the first place? For openers, by any and all standards, giving him a visa was a near certainty that another immigrant would remain here permanently.
There were several telltale signs that would have, at least in my years in embassies, prevented any consular officer, a role that I did not generally have unless assigned to do so over a weekend or an emergency, from issuing that visa, amongst them that Duncan was single and basically unemployed, had lived in Ghana, which demonstrated a tenuous connection to Liberia, and had family in the U.S. It should also be noted that Liberia has one of the world’s highest levels of visa overstays, another strike against him. And, of course, there is the question of the Ebola presence in that region, which should make all of the other issues moot. Read More »