Marine General John F. Kelly, Commander of U.S. Southern Command, gave a warning to the National Defense University on Wednesday that the spread of Ebola to Central and South America could cause a mass exodus to the United States from fear. Some with the Ebola disease could illegally enter the United States for treatment.

According to DoD News,

“By the end of the year, there’s supposed to be 1.4 million people infected with Ebola and 62 percent of them dying, according to the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention],” Marine Corps Gen. John F. Kelly said. “That’s horrific. And there is no way we can keep Ebola [contained] in West Africa.”

The General said if the disease gets to countries like Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador, it will cause a panic and people will flee the region.

“If it breaks out, it’s literally, ‘Katie bar the door,’ and there will be mass migration into the United States,” Kelly said. “They will run away from Ebola, or if they suspect they are infected, they will try to get to the United States for treatment.”

He also noted that transnational criminal networks could smuggle those carrying Ebola to the U.S. southern border. This was the reported situation with M-13 gang members and children with diseases being smuggled by the Mexican drug cartel into the US with Mexican government knowledge several months ago.

Kelly spoke of visiting the border of Costa Rica and Nicaragua with U.S. embassy personnel. At that time, a group of men “were waiting in line to pass into Nicaragua and then on their way north,” he recalled.

“The embassy person walked over and asked who they were and they told him they were from Liberia and they had been on the road about a week,” Kelly continued. “They met up with the network in Trinidad and now they were on their way to the United States — illegally, of course.”

According to KeysInfoNet web site

The U.S. Coast Guard so far this fiscal year has interdicted almost 950 Haitians at sea trying to reach South Florida.

That figure refers to normal illegal attempts to enter the US and not because of a current Ebola outbreak.

Science of Us web site reported that a DoD official issued the following statement:

We expect our combatant commanders to prepare and plan for all manner of contingencies and threats. That’s their job. Our focus remains on supporting the international community and the government of Liberia in their efforts to stop the spread of Ebola in Western Africa. That’s our commitment. We remain in close contact with our friends and partners in the international community as together we look for ways to assist against this deadly disease. It’s important for everyone to be thinking carefully about all aspects of this deadly disease. That’s what General Kelly is doing.

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