The Travel Ban that Wasn't
April 2, 2020: President Trump likes to say he acted early to fight the spread of COVID-19. He points to his executive order in late January, that restricted travel from China. And he claims he took heat from Joe Biden for the ban. True, Biden has called Trump xenophobic, but the reasons go beyond the travel ban. Trump has shown a pattern of xenophobia evidenced by his rhetoric against immigrants from Mexico and from other places Trump calls “shithole countries,” and his quest to build a wall at the border with Mexico. Trump’s travel order seemed to spring from his oft-expressed derisive views of China and its leaders. Trump has repeatedly referred to COVID-19 in a mocking tone as the “Chinese virus,” creating a negative connotation for Asians, who could be seen as a physical embodiment of the virus. Some Asians have expressed their fear of being profiled and the stigma that could be associated with “coughing while Asian.”
Joe Biden’s March 12 speech, for example, took Trump to task not for the travel restrictions alone, but for Trump’s rhetoric calling COVID-19 a “foreign virus,” and for not acknowledging how serious the virus is or developing a national plan to combat it.
"Down-playing it [the effect of the virus], being overly dismissive, or spreading misinformation is not only going to hurt us, and further advantage the spread of the disease. But neither should we panic or fall back on xenophobia, Labeling COVID-19 a foreign virus does not displace accountability for the misjudgments that have been taken thus far by the Trump administration."
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAdzW-mRKTk)
In fact, many European countries declared a travel ban days before or after Trump’s restrictions. Had a ban been declared earlier, the virus might not have spread as much or as fast as it has and Trump would have accomplished a slowdown of the virus’s spread in this country.
The problem? Trump’s order was not a ban. There were about 11 exceptions to the travel rule. For example, the order did not apply to US residents and their families. About 18,000 Americans returned home from China in February and March. Americans could still travel to and from China during this time. Imported goods were not banned from arriving from China, and neither were the plane and cargo ship crews that brought those products. The travel order did not block travel from China, but erected a sieve, with holes too large to keep the country safe from infection.
At a House subcommittee hearing Ron Klain, White House Ebola response coordinator under the Obama administration, reported that 300,000 people had travelled from China to America in the month prior to the order, so “The horse is out of the barn.”
“We don’t have a travel ban.” Klain said. “We have a travel Band-Aid.”
The so-called travel ban falls laughably short of its very name and does not suffice as a national plan to combat this virus.
The problem? Trump’s order was not a ban. There were about 11 exceptions to the travel rule. For example, the order did not apply to US residents and their families. About 18,000 Americans returned home from China in February and March. Americans could still travel to and from China during this time. Imported goods were not banned from arriving from China, and neither were the plane and cargo ship crews that brought those products. The travel order did not block travel from China, but erected a sieve, with holes too large to keep the country safe from infection.
At a House subcommittee hearing Ron Klain, White House Ebola response coordinator under the Obama administration, reported that 300,000 people had travelled from China to America in the month prior to the order, so “The horse is out of the barn.”
“We don’t have a travel ban.” Klain said. “We have a travel Band-Aid.”
The so-called travel ban falls laughably short of its very name and does not suffice as a national plan to combat this virus.
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