A State Department memo confirms that the Obama administration is considering allowing non-U.S. citizens with Ebola to come into the country for treatment, Fox News reports.
The internal memo is marked "Sensitive," but unclassified and was written by a State Department official, reporter Mike Emanuel said Tuesday on Fox News Channel's
"Special Report."
At issue, according to the memo, is American leadership.
The United States should "act as we are asking others to act by admitting certain non-citizens into the country for medical treatment for Ebola virus disease during the Ebola crisis," the memo reads.
The memo recommends the State Department and Department of Homeland Security devise a system to allow medical evacuation for non-citizens as long as they are otherwise eligible for evacuation from the Ebola-affected country and into the United States, Fox News reported.
Earlier Tuesday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said he was unaware of any plans to bring non-U.S. citizens with Ebola into the country.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte last week sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson asking if reports of such a plan were true.
Goodlatte told Fox News Channel's
"The Kelly File" Monday night that someone from inside the administration had told him of the plan.
Goodlatte said he has not gotten a response to his letter, and Fox News said requests for a State Department response have gone unanswered.
USA Today on Sunday reported that the Pentagon is developing portable isolation units that can hold up to 12 people. The isolation units would be used on military aircraft.
But Defense Department spokeswoman Jennifer Elzea told USA Today that the isolation units are not intended to be used for the 3,000 troops being deployed to West Africa to help deal with the crisis there, since they won't be dealing directly with Ebola patients.
The isolation units would be used on C-17 or C-130 transport planes, USA Today reported, and would be able to handle a larger number of patients than the current system, in which a private company is able to transport only a single patient at a time.
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