Migrant illness rampant: forces US Border Patrol to seek help

"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're not sending you. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people." -- Donald J. Trump

And now they're bringing their sickest people, especially their children.

In the seven days through Sunday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) reported 451 cases referred to physicians or other providers, including 259 children. Among the children, half of the cases involved kids under the age of five!

Hundreds of migrants and their kids seeking to enter the U.S. from Mexico are arriving with illnesses, forcing U.S. Customs and Border Protection to seek additional medical assistance and boost medical screenings, the agency disclosed Monday.

The sick migrants have been arriving with a myriad of ailments, many with flu or pneumonia that is often pervasive and dangerous, especially at this time of year. Seventeen migrants have been hospitalized, including six children, according to the agency.

"The U.S. Border Patrol is doing everything in its power to handle this crisis," Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said in a statement. However he added, "The status quo is not acceptable" given the wave of immigrants arriving. Something needs to change.

Disclosure of the numbers of sick migrants come amid heightened concern about the medical condition of children in U.S. custody. Previously, the agency disclosed an 8-year-old boy from Guatemala died in custody on Christmas, the second immigrant child to pass away in detention this month.

The boy, Felipe Gomez Alonzo, had been treated and released to his father for cold and fever symptoms during nearly a week in U.S. custody, the agency said.

The Border Patrol has been receiving assistance from the Coast Guard, which has sent medical teams to the border in the Yuma and Tucson, Arizona, and Rio Grande Valley sectors of the border. The Public Health Service also said it will deploy teams to assist.

The Border Patrol is changing procedures to enhance medical evaluations of children. Parents are being interviewed about their children's medical condition and history and kids' blood pressure, pulse and temperature are among the vitals being checked by assessment teams, McAleenan told reporters in a conference call.

He said he believes the illness were likely contracted in transit to the U.S., not while in U.S. custody. 

But if anyone is to blame, it's the parents, not ICE or USCBP.

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