“It’s not clear the government has a good strategy to deal with the Zika virus or that they’re willing to acknowledge how easily this can spread, when we have uncontrolled movement of people from the countries that are most affected,” said Jessica Vaughn.

Vaughn is director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies. The U.S. has thousands of travelers arriving daily from Zika-afflicted countries, she told LifeZette, and has an influx of illegal aliens and legal immigrants from the countries.

She is shocked that the U.S. is not testing people for the virus as they come into the country from those areas — regardless of their citizenship — especially since the virus can be spread sexually.

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The Zika virus is already here in America, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has now confirmed that it causes severe birth defects. Countries in Central and South America were recently put on alert for the virus—some of them are countries that pose specific immigration issues to the U.S.

While it’s tough to pinpoint data on how many cases are brought to the U.S. by Americans traveling in the region and how many cases are brought to the U.S. by illegal immigrants, Vaughn says she can’t imagine that thirsty mosquitos distinguish between where people come from or where they’re headed — when they bite into people.

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“The mosquitoes certainly don’t discriminate,” Vaughn said.

The Obama administration has been pretty lax about sharing a plan with Americans on what can be done to stop the virus. It has not broached the notion that immigration could play a role in its spread.

“As with Ebola, the federal government has been slow to alert the public as to the true severity of this public health risk,” Vaughn said. “The Obama administration just kept saying, ‘Calm down, we don’t know what you’re talking about.’”

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[lz_bulleted_list title=”Zika in the U.S. as of April 13, 2016″ source=”http://www.cdc.gov”]0 locally acquired cases|358 travel-related cases|31 of the 358 infected are pregnant|7 cases were sexually transmitted|1 due to Guillain Barre Syndrome[/lz_bulleted_list]

Vaughn believes all public health threats like Zika should be of concern considering America’s open immigration system.

“We shouldn’t apologize for taking steps to try to prevent the spread of diseases like this. Certainly other countries don’t,” she said, recalling the avian flu and SARS epidemics.

Dr. Peter Jay Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor University, told LifeZette the country needs to focus more on the mosquitoes and less on who’s to blame for the virus spreading.

“Most of the Zika that’s being imported isn’t from people seeking to migrate to the U.S.,” he said. “You could completely stop foreign immigration tomorrow. It’s not going to do a thing.”

Hotez said he would like to see the U.S. do more to control mosquito populations, but most practices are very labor-intensive.

“We’ve always refused and now I think we’re going to have to start considering it,” he added.

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