Excerpt: "The new arrivals had been in federal custody for up to 72 hours, but most had received no real medical attention."
Migrants from Honduras were taken into custody by Border Patrol agents near Granjeno, Texas, last month. (photo: Tamir Kalifa/NYT)
Open Wounds, Head Injuries, Fever: Ailing Migrants Suffer at the Border
05 March 19
The deaths of two children in Border Patrol custody point to shortfalls in health care provided to migrants, who sometimes arrive with serious illness and injury.
t was nearly 9 p.m., hours after the makeshift clinic for newly arrived migrants near the Mexican border in Texas was supposed to close, but the patients would not stop coming: A feverish teenager with a vile-smelling wound on his foot. A man with a head injury and bright red eyes. Children with fevers, coughs and colds.
Earlier in the day, a little girl named Nancy had been brought into the clinic with a cough and shaking chills. She had been vomiting, she said, and her spine hurt. An assistant took her temperature. “She’s got 104, almost 105,” she said.
The steady flow of migrants who arrived that night at the volunteer respite center operated by Catholic Charities here in the Rio Grande Valley had just been released by Customs and Border Protection after being apprehended near the border. The new arrivals had been in federal custody for up to 72 hours, but most had received no real medical attention — the volunteer physicians at the private clinic were the first doctors many had seen since crossing the border.
|
THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community. |
