Denial of medical care in ICE detention is making children, women vulnerable

It’s been a very busy week for immigration reporters in the United States. Also for health reporters. But, critically, it’s been a troublesome week filled with stories that mix the two beats, with multiple reports that migrants and refugees being held in U.S. detention are being refused medical care they desperately need. 

All week, protesters have disrupted the everyday operations of detention centers throughout the country. They say the U.S. government is denying those detained their basic human right to medical care, including flu vaccinations. Also this week, four women told the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) that undocumented women are being “denied proper care at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Mississippi.” Women suffering painful, potentially deadly pelvic cysts are being forced to wait more than a month for appointments with specialists or have been “dismissed by medical professionals who didn’t understand their concerns,” The Huffington Post reported. One woman told RAICES she is not receiving proper treatment for a brain tumor.

“People are needlessly suffering and dying,” Dr. Marie DeLuca told Common Dreams. She and other doctors were refused entry to the Chula Vista Border Patrol Station in San Ysidro, San Diego, in order to give flu vaccinations. “You can't lock people up in inhumane conditions, watch them get sick, and then refuse them access to medical care.” 

Doctors from a group called Doctors for Camp Closure sent a damning letter to the Department of Homeland Security in November, explaining that the flu shots would be administered at no cost to the government and that multiple government regulations suggest and even require flu vaccinations be given to immigrants.

The group explains that not only does the spread of the flu harm and potentially kill immigrants, it also has the potential to cause outbreaks throughout the country. In particular, children “are most likely to be infected and are the major spreaders of influenza,” doctors have found.

“The CDC [Centers for Disease Control] currently recommends that all individuals above the age of 6 months receive a flu vaccine by the end of October 2019 to protect against the disease for the current flu season,” the doctors wrote. “That deadline has now passed without any migrant families in CBP [Customs and Border Protection] custody being immunized thus far. The American Academy of Pediatrics also recommends ‘routine influenza immunization of all children without medical contraindications, starting at 6 months of age.’”

And, critically: “the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) policy manual notes that the CDC requires that immigrants receive flu vaccines.”

But on Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security tweeted: “Of course Border Patrol isn't going to let a random group of radical political activists show up and start injecting people with drugs.”

Dr. Mario Mendoza, a retired anesthesiologist, told The San Diego Union-Tribune “it would take less than a half an hour to administer vaccines to more than 100 children” via a free mobile flu clinic doctors have set up directly outside the San Diego CBP facility.

In a continued denial of the horrific reality that migrants and refugees are stuck in detention indefinitely, a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent told the paper: “Individuals in CBP custody should generally not be held for longer than 72 hours in either CBP hold rooms or holding facilities. ... As a law enforcement agency, and due to the short-term nature of CBP holding and other logistical challenges, operating a vaccine program is not feasible.”

Detainees have been regularly held for weeks or months, advocacy groups have found.

These current health concerns for detainees are merely the latest in an ever-growing string of illnesses going untreated—some of which have led to death. As part of an ever-increasing death count, at least three children died of the flu while in CBP custody in the 2018-2019 flu season, according to Voice of America.

“Our biggest fear is that if we don’t get someone we’re working with out of detention, they are going to be the next person dying in ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] custody,” Andrea Meza, the director of family detention services at RAICES, told The Huffington Post.