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By Jacob Bogage and Yasmeen Abutaleb
WASHINGTON, July 22 (Reuters) – U.S. health officials quarantined 14 American citizens at a New York military base for four days after a recent return from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where an Ebola outbreak is underway, according to records seen by Reuters and two people familiar with the situation.
The travelers, who were returning via Canada, were not symptomatic for Ebola and were deemed not to be at risk of transmitting the disease, the people said. There is no U.S. order in place preventing citizens returning via land, although a “do-not-board” order issued this month requires U.S. citizens in Congo to quarantine for at least 21 days before they can return via a commercial flight.
Two Defense Department notifications stated that the travelers could not return directly to the U.S. from Congo as the Trump administration ramps up efforts to keep out individuals it deems at risk of Ebola, according to a copy of one of the memos and one of the people who reviewed the other.
The incident highlights the unprecedented and uneven policies being implemented by authorities who have vowed to prevent Ebola from reaching the U.S. Those policies have caused concern among public health and legal experts who say it is not legal to deny U.S. citizens entry into the country, even if they were exposed to or infected with a disease like Ebola.
TRUMP POLICIES SUSCEPTIBLE TO LEGAL CHALLENGES, EXPERTS SAY
There have been nearly 2,500 confirmed cases of the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola in Congo, the third-largest Ebola outbreak on record, government data showed on Wednesday.
The effort to keep Ebola outside of the U.S. has caused chaos across the government, according to the sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for instance, career officials must ask political leaders at the agency on a case-by-case basis whether those arriving from Congo can be admitted into the country, according to one of the people.
The Trump administration has also built a new isolation facility in Kenya and last week seven American aid workers were quarantined there. It has also sent two Americans to Germany for Ebola treatment, saying it was closer than the U.S.
Experts say, however, that Trump’s policies could face legal challenges, as American citizens have the right to reenter their country, although they can be quarantined if they have exposure to a highly infectious disease. The U.S. has 13 biocontainment sites.
James Hodge, director of the Center for Public Health Law and Policy at Arizona State University, noted that the “do-not-board” order applied to anyone who has visited Congo, even outside of areas where the Ebola outbreak is underway.
“The question would be, under what standard are you measuring whether you were exposed to Ebola? Just because you were in the Congo?” he said. “That’s not a standard that can sustain most legal inquiry.”
Emily Hilliard, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement that the agency’s “do-not-board” order spans a 30-day period “with the intent to consistently re-evaluate the rapidly evolving outbreak situation on the ground.”
She referred further questions to the Department of Homeland Security. DHS representatives declined to comment and referred questions to the CDC, a subagency of HHS. The larger health agency, which handles external communications for the CDC, did not respond to a query on the issue.
PENTAGON PROVIDED TEMPORARY FACILITY
According to the sources, the travelers included recently naturalized U.S. citizens who were visiting family in Congo.
Attempting to return home, two families — including two young teens and a 70-year-old — flew to Canada, but were stopped when they attempted to reenter the U.S. by land on Thursday through ports of entry in Vermont and New York, the people said.
The families spent Thursday night at the crossing in Vermont and were transported on Friday to Fort Drum, a U.S. Army base about 30 miles from the Canadian border, where they were housed in apartment-style quarters and placed under observation by CDC officials before they were released on Monday. Members of the group continued to their final destinations by bus and plane, the people added.
A Pentagon official told Reuters that Fort Drum accepted the families “to provide a temporary, isolated assessment facility and life support,” and that they received medical evaluations from the CDC. They were “relocated by HHS personnel” on Monday, the official said.
Defense Department officials told lawmakers that Fort Drum provided housing facilities at the request of the health agency.
Major General Scott M. Naumann, the leader of the Fort Drum installation, wrote to Congress that the base provided a “temporary isolated quarantine facility” at the request of federal health officials, according to a person familiar with the notification. The memo told lawmakers there was no danger to the public or base personnel.
Naumann did not reply to a request for comment.
In a separate letter, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote to Senator Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican and chair of the Armed Services Committee, that the quarantine at Fort Drum “will not negatively affect military training, operations, readiness, or other military requirements, including National Guard and Reserve readiness.”
(Reporting by Jacob Bogage and Yasmeen Abutaleb; Editing by Caroline Humer, Edwina Gibbs and Mark Porter)
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