Texas Gov. Perry calls for travel ban due to Ebola

Associated Press
October 17, 2014 12:31 PM
Content preferences

    FILE - In this Aug. 19, 2014 file photo, Texas Gov. Rick Perry talks to the media and supporters after he was booked at the Blackwell Thurman Criminal Justice Center, in Austin, Texas. Perry will make his first court appearance on Halloween as his defense team tries to quash the two felony counts of abuse of power against him on both constitutional and technical grounds. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
    .

    View photo

    FILE - In this Aug. 19, 2014 file photo, Texas Gov. Rick Perry talks to the media and supporters after he was booked at the Blackwell Thurman Criminal Justice Center, in Austin, Texas. Perry will make his first court appearance on Halloween as his defense team tries to quash the two felony counts of abuse of power against him on both constitutional and technical grounds. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

    DALLAS (AP) — Texas Gov. Rick Perry has joined calls for an air travel ban from countries hit the hardest by Ebola.

    Perry said Friday that air travel is how Ebola crosses borders and that's how it arrived in Texas, so an air travel ban is the right policy.

    A Texas hospital had the first person diagnosed with the virus in the U.S., after Thomas Eric Duncan traveled from Liberia. He died last week, and two nurses involved in his care have become infected.

    Perry also says he's asked President Barack Obama to have Ebola cases fast-tracked to facilities better able to deal with the disease.

    Congressional Republicans are urging the Obama administration to impose a travel ban on West African countries at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak.

    Related video:

    View Comments (505)