'Timely Action Is Critical': Doctors Call On Congress to Investigate Children's Deaths In Migrant Detention Centers

Physicians from two top universities called on Congress to promptly investigate the deaths of six migrant children in the Trump administration’s custody, warning that the widely-reported poor conditions in detention centers could be putting thousands of children at risk for infectious diseases.

Three of the six children who died while in U.S. custody since last September died partially because they had contracted influenza, the doctors noted. Two died after spending twice the amount of time in a Border Patrol station than the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) typically allows.

It’s “necessary to better understand the conditions at the border to avoid more deaths,” tweeted Paul Spiegel, a public health professor at Johns Hopkins University.

The administration “may be overlooking the risks of outbreaks that are entirely preventable,” Joshua Sharfstein, another Johns Hopkins professor, told the Washington Post.

About 2,000 migrant children are in U.S. custody on any given day, many after a grueling journey from Central America and elsewhere. The children are in Border Patrol stations, where many have been kept for far longer than the facilities are equipped to house people; detention centers run by ICE and the Health and Human Services Department (HHS), and facilities run by for-profit government contractors like CoreCivic.

The doctors urged lawmakers to probe how the widely-reported unsanitary conditions in the centers—detailed by children in a facility near El Paso in June—contributed to the deaths that have been recorded.

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