Senators are condemning the Trump administration’s inhumane decision to not vaccinate migrant kids and families in Customs and Border Protection custody ahead of flu season as “immoral and irresponsible,” telling top department leaders that this is a “dangerous” decision when the flu “has already proven fatal to children” under U.S. watch.
“Though the flu is a preventable illness,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren leads in a letter signed by 12 additional Democratic senators, “at least three children in U.S. custody died, in part, from the flu.” Administration officials are defending the decision to withhold vaccinations, citing “the short-term nature of CBP holding,” and “the complexities of operating vaccination programs.” But both claims are false.
One 17-year-old mom said that she and her sick baby had been jailed for nearly three weeks at a facility in McAllen, Texas, criminally exceeding the 72-hour limit for detained minors. In late August, BuzzFeed News also obtained a draft policy detailing the administration’s interest in collecting the DNA samples of possibly hundreds of thousands of immigrants. But flu shots are too “complex,” apparently. “It is not because of insurmountable complexity that the Trump administration is withholding flu shots from detained migrants,” pediatrician Daniel Summers wrote. “It is because they simply do not care to protect them.”
“CBP's decision not to vaccinate against this preventable harm, which has already proven fatal for children in its custody, is inexcusable,” the senators, including presidential candidates Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, and Bernie Sanders, tell acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. They write that coupling this with poor, ongoing conditions inside detention facilities, as well as the administration’s recent move to end basic protections for detained kids, is a recipe for disaster.
“Since 2018, at least seven children who had been in federal custody—including CBP—have died,” they state. “CBP's largest detention center, located in McAllen, Texas, also had to temporarily stop processing migrants earlier this year due to a flu outbreak that affected nearly three dozen detainees.” The senators tell Azar and McAleenan that they want to know, by September 20, how their agencies will proceed should children and families become sick.
But the first step to stopping further tragedy is by giving the flu shots, which officials continue to refuse to do, and this refusal could now cost more lives. “CBP must do more to ensure the health of migrant children and families under its care,” the senators write, “and we strongly urge the agency to reconsider its plan not to vaccinate those in its custody.”