Opinion: When border officials brought in a detained child with flu, our hospital faced a dilemma
LA TimesEarlier this month, doctors and other healthcare providers from Doctors for Camp Closure went to the Chula Vista Border Patrol Station in San Ysidro hoping to get access to the facility to give flu shots to detained migrants. In the last year, at least three migrant children have died in detention of flu-related causes, so the question of what kind of conditions the patient would be facing wasn’t simply academic. Hospital staff worried about the child, and we also worried that immigration officials have begun trying to pass the buck on responsibility for sick children by asking outside health professionals to clear sick detainees for continued incarceration. CBP has said it doesn’t keep people long enough to justify vaccinations, but in many detention centers, migrants are sometimes held for weeks, and some are then transferred to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and held in its facilities. Earlier this month, at the border near San Diego, another group turned up at a CBP facility with donated flu vaccine and the medical personnel to administer it, but they, too, were refused, and some of the doctors were taken away in handcuffs.
History of this topic
CDC urged US Customs and Border Protection to vaccinate migrants, but they rejected the idea
CNN
Flu shots for migrants: CBP all but certain to say ‘no’
CNN
Doctor: Refusing vaccines for migrants is cruelly stupid (opinion)
CNN
CBP will not vaccinate migrants against flu
CNN
Doctors describe black box of medical care in detention facilities: ‘That is not medical care. That’s malpractice’
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In Their Own Words, Migrant Children Describe Horrific Conditions At Border Patrol Facilities
Huff Post
Lawyers Want Inspections Of Migrant Kid Centers
Huff Post
Border detention facilities: Lack of soap, filthy onesies and too few beds have created a ‘health crisis, monitors say
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