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A federal ruling is expected soon on whether the government provides shelter, food and medical care to miners while they await treatment.
By Emily Baumgaertner
Emily Baumgaertner reported on migrant camps along the U. S. -Mexico border wall in California.
For Dr. Theresa Cheng, the scene is “apocalyptic. “
He had arrived in Valley of the Moon, an open-air detention center in San Diego’s rural Mountain Empire, to provide free medical care to asylum seekers who had crossed the U. S. -Mexico border wall and were waiting to be detained by U. S. authorities.
Among the crowds in this and other places, he discovered young men with deep lacerations, damaged bones, fever, diarrhea, vomiting and even convulsions. Some hidden in dumpsters and overflowing porches. An asthmatic child without an inhaler breathed in the pungent smoke from the brush. and bonfires of garbage, lit for warmth.
With limited capacity at immigration processing centers, migrants, including unaccompanied children, wait for hours or even days in waiting areas, where a lack of shelter, food, and health infrastructure has triggered a variety of mostly vulnerable public health disorders.
“From a public fitness perspective, there are communicable diseases and exposures that would affect anyone, let alone this medically vulnerable population,” said Dr. Cheng, an emergency physician at Zuckerberg General Hospital and Trauma Center in San Francisco.
A ruling U. S. district court in California could rule as early as Friday whether the government is legally required to space and feed children while they wait.
In a court filing, Justice Department lawyers say that because the youths have not yet been officially detained by U. S. Customs and Border Protection, they are required to provide such service.
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