A Chinese American civil rights organization accused President Trump of stoking anti-Asian sentiments in response to the coronavirus.
Late yesterday, Trump signed a temporary ban on all foreign nationals who have traveled through China in the last 14 days from entering the U.S., except for immediate family members of US citizens and permanent residents.
“The ban really does I think, promote stigma and discrimination against the Chinese. So in effect it is creating what many Chinese American and many Asian Americans feel which is it’s promoting an anti-Chinese sentiment,” Cynthia Choi, co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action in San Francisco, said to ABC7 News.
Choi called the travel ban “Unfortunately xenophobic-suggesting that all Chinese people are hosts of this potentially deadly virus.”
According to the Mercury News, Americans returning from China will go through special screenings. If they are returning from Wuhan or the Hubei province where the coronavirus originated, they could be quarantined up to 14 days.
All passengers returning from China must go through one of seven airports: New York’s Kennedy Airport, Atlanta, Chicago’s O’Hare, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Honolulu.
The restrictions begin Sunday, February 2.
Yoes Li arrived at San Francisco International from China Friday.
“I really worried I couldn’t come back. I was lucky, I’m lucky I got here,” Li said to ABC7.
Manteep Khadka also arrived Friday from China. He is from Nepal and is a permanent resident of the United States. He agrees with the ban.
“Yeah of course, we got to be safe right so yeah of course it’s a good decision,” Khadka said to ABC7.
AsAmNews has Asian America in its heart. We’re an all-volunteer effort of dedicated staff and interns. Check out our new Instagram account. Go to our Twitter feed and Facebook page for more content. Please consider interning, joining our staff, or submitting a story.