President Trump’s coronavirus travel bans have been effective in refusing air travel entry to the United States for Chinese nationals, Iranian nationals, and recent visitors to either of those countries.
On January 31, Trump announced a travel ban on Chinese nationals and foreign travelers who had visited China within the last 14 days. There are now nearly 81,000 coronavirus cases in China and 3,213 deaths. About a month later, Trump expanded the travel ban to include Iran, where more than 850 have died from the Wuhan, China, virus.
Between February 2 and March 12, Trump’s travel bans have made sure a total of about 143 foreign air travelers — who have visited or resided in China or Iran — were not allowed entry to the U.S., according to federal data obtained by Breitbart News.
At American airports, 18 foreign nationals were refused entry to the U.S. over the last five weeks.
Meanwhile, 125 foreign nationals were denied from ever boarding U.S.-bound flights thanks to the travel ban restrictions. These denials were conducted during pre-clearance locations at international airports.
Breitbart News previously reported on the latest number of denials of entry at land ports of entry thanks to the travel ban restrictions, where nearly 240 foreign nationals were kept out of the U.S. This brings the total of foreign nationals refused entry to the U.S. due to the travel bans, via land ports of entry and air travel, to 380 thus far.
This data does not include the number of Europeans and recent European travelers who will have been kept from entering the U.S. because that travel ban went into effect on Friday, March 13.
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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