Children are in crisis and Border Patrol agents are letting them get to the brink of death.
Nurses are criticizing Border Patrol agents for delaying care to migrant children in dire need, putting them at risk for deadly health issues.
On Tuesday, Buzzfeed reported on the growing concerns of these medical professionals who are treating children in the Rio Grande Valley.
"Young patients arriving in recent months are often in such poor health that they're 'on the borderline' of medical staff needing to call a specialized rapid response team of doctors to prevent them from going into respiratory or cardiac arrest," the outlet reported.
The nurses told Buzzfeed that many of the children they are seeing from the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency are suffering from severe respiratory distress, dehydration, and fevers that should have led to them receiving medical attention far before they are.
"They're so dehydrated their lips are cracked," one nurse said. Buzzfeed noted that dehydration and respiratory issues are more prevalent among younger children.
Children are being delivered to the hospital in mucus-stained shirts they have been wearing for days. Some of them arrived with severe diaper rash because CBP hasn't given parents clean diapers.
One child with chicken pox who was suffering from respiratory problems was brought to the hospital, but Border Patrol agents didn't tell the medical team about the infection. It took days and an infection leading to a "massively" swollen foot before medical staffers knew what was going on.
"Border Patrol only brings them in when they're 99% bad. If this is how they treat kids I don't want to know how they treat the parents," a nurse told Buzzfeed.
The nurses said CBP agents have gone so far as to prevent the children from watching cartoons while they heal, and prevent their parents from watching the news "so they don't get any ideas."
Children have been dying in U.S. custody as the fallout from Trump's harsh anti-immigrant policies continues.
Meanwhile, CBP agents were caught mocking those deaths in a secret Facebook group, echoing many of the callous sentiments about these desperate people that have come from Trump and other Republicans.
The children and their families, along with thousands of other migrants, are being warehoused in substandard conditions.
Children are being abused and concerned figures including medical professionals are raising the alarm. The children are suffering and dying while the Trump administration hurtles forward with the cruelest anti-immigrant policies and programs.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
