Migrants arriving ill at US border
A GROWING number of families and children apprehended at the US border with Mexico were requiring medical treatment after a rigorous journey north in very crowded conditions, the head of US Border Patrol said this week.
At the close of a month in which two young Guatemalan children died in custody, six children were among 17 migrants hospitalised, said Kevin McAleenan, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection (CPB).
On a typical day, he said, 50 people were referred to medical providers, though one day alone the authorities sent more than 80 to be treated.
He said two pregnant women were recently rushed to hospitals immediately after being taken into custody, because they were about to give birth.
Some of the illnesses that agents had been seeing on a recurring basis were typical winter diseases such as influenza. Some migrants had been diagnosed with very serious problems, including pneumonia, tuberculosis, parasites and gastrointestinal illnesses.
“I’d say many were ill before they departed their homes,” McAleenan said. He called the situation at the border “an unprecedented crisis” caused by a sharp increase in the number of younger, sicker people who were crossing. The number of asylum cases had more than doubled, fuelled largely by Central American families fleeing violence in their home countries.
A 7-year-old girl died on December 7 in CPB custody, apparently after going days without eating or drinking.
After a second migrant child died on Christmas Eve, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen blamed smugglers and migrant parents for pushing border security systems to the “breaking point”.
The traditional 25-to-30-day cycle it takes for a migrant to go from Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala to its northern border with the US has become much shorter. Some are arriving at the border in commercial buses that make the trip in five days.
The quicker trips may have encouraged more parents to bring children, who made up two-thirds of the people apprehended last month. Their vulnerable age, plus the stress of an arduous journey during flu season as smugglers crowd them into buses and houses, have caused significant increases in the number who arrive very ill.
From December 22 to Sunday, according to CPB figures, 451 migrants were taken for medical care; 259 cases were children and half of those were under the age of 5. Nielsen has now ordered that all children be given a medical screening after being apprehended. US foreign assistance to Central America has been directed to programmes that seek to address the root causes of poverty and gang violence that are propelling people to flee.
President Donald Trump has tweeted he wants to cut off US aid to these countries unless they do more to stop migrants from leaving.