海角大神

Over a 13-year career as a pediatrician in Texas, Dr. Marsha Griffin has visited every government facility that could hold newly arrived migrant children in the Rio Grande Valley.

She visited U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities during the 2013 and 2014 surge in unaccompanied minors arriving from Central America, when the agency retrofitted a warehouse in McAllen, Texas, into its largest detention center for unauthorized immigrants. Over the past 12 months, she has been visiting the facilities again 鈥� including a new temporary CBP facility in Donna, Texas, amid another surge in unaccompanied minors and families from Central America.

Dr. Griffin sat down with the Monitor in early July to discuss what she has been seeing and how she thinks the government could be taking better care of the migrant children in its custody. The CBP and the Trump administration have been heavily criticized for the treatment of migrants along the southern border, with doctors, lawyers, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) inspector general reporting that children have been held for weeks in overcrowded facilities without adequate food, water, and sanitation. Six children have died in federal custody since September.

The CBP 鈥渓everages our limited resources to provide the best care possible to those in our custody, especially children,鈥� an agency official said in a statement.

鈥淥ur short-term holding facilities were not designed to hold vulnerable populations,鈥� the official added.聽鈥淐BP聽works closely with our partners at the Department of Health and Human Services to transfer unaccompanied children to their custody as soon as placement is identified, and as quickly and expeditiously as possible to ensure proper care.鈥�

Testifying before the House Oversight Committee, acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan said the agency has been coping with 鈥渁n unprecedented crisis at the border.鈥� More than 530,000 migrants have been apprehended at the southern border since January, during which time he says the department has delivered more than 6 million meals, conducted more than 400,000 medical interviews, and conducted medical transport and held hospital watch for migrants for over 250,000 hours. More than 200 medical professionals are now embedded in facilities on the border, he said, a tenfold increase from January.

But what concerns Dr. Griffin is the quality of the meals and what is not being detected in the medical interviews, among other things. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

What has been your general impression of how the government has been taking care of detained migrant children?

There鈥檚 a lot of different agencies that take care of them. I went into the Border Patrol facility in Donna in May, and then I was in two weeks ago again with officials from the American Academy of Pediatrics聽and the Texas Pediatric Society, because we feel that as the leading pediatric organized medical association we need to know how our government is treating children. We came down, and we鈥檝e been down here almost every year for the last four or five years, going in to see what鈥檚 going on. And it has gotten increasingly worse.

The Donna temporary influx facility 鈥� we saw it before it opened. They were hoping it would be for unaccompanied children; it鈥檚 now for families. We went in there two weeks ago. We also went into the Ursula facility [in McAllen], which is all in the news. That one is overcrowded, and it鈥檚 where the cages are. Because they had so many coming in 2013 and 2014 they needed a pop-off valve. So Ursula was built in 2014, and it has the big cages in it. And it鈥檚 the one that everyone is up in arms about because of the sanitary conditions.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ones are completely separate.

What are the common medical issues you鈥檝e been seeing?

Sixty-two percent of them are upper respiratory infection. Another 20% are vomiting and diarrhea. And then you鈥檒l have 1 to 2% that are influenza ... or you have someone going into premature labor, or you鈥檝e got some child that actually has an upper respiratory but also has a heart condition, and that heart condition was never recognized.

So the EMTs at the Border Patrol facility may have said, 鈥楾his child has an upper respiratory infection,鈥� but when we see them and we actually examine them, we have to get them to the hospital and we find they actually are in congenital heart failure. It鈥檚 not an upper respiratory problem, or it鈥檚 an upper respiratory problem on top of something else. That鈥檚 not every day, but I think it contributes to why we had six kids die here. Because they鈥檙e screening, but they鈥檙e not screening the way we would screen, by actually examining them.

You mentioned earlier that HHS facilities are different from CBP facilities. How so?

HHS facilities are more child-friendly. ... They have licensed people in there, they get lots of training. They are not perfect, and there has been lots of news about how bad some of them are, but the vast majority of them are good.

But it used to be [the children] would be out within three to four weeks. Three to four weeks is OK, a kid can do that, but when it keeps dragging on is when it鈥檚 problematic. Because for the kids, it鈥檚 still detention to them. They can鈥檛 really leave, there鈥檚 locks on the doors, if they try to get out they鈥檙e going to be in trouble. But their medical care, although not perfect, is far superior to what鈥檚 at CBP.

What has happened is you鈥檝e got a law enforcement organization, Customs and Border Protection, who have told us they don鈥檛 want to take care of kids. They want to be bringing in the bad guys. They don鈥檛 want to be babysitting, and we鈥檝e charged them with setting up a facility that鈥檚 not going to traumatize kids. But the only thing they know how to do is set up jails. They鈥檙e law enforcement. They haven鈥檛 gone out and studied what鈥檚 a space for a child. They haven鈥檛 been trained in child development. They don鈥檛 know what鈥檚 going to traumatize them.

They don鈥檛 have that training to know how to design a building. Even though when CBP designed Ursula in 2014 they said they were designing it for unaccompanied children, what they did is put in cages. So, come on. Kids don鈥檛 go in cages.

Do you think all migrant children should be kept in HHS custody then?

Yes. You could send all the families to ORR [the Office of Refugee Resettlement], and you could have CBP have an office in there. They could design it so if the kids weren鈥檛 there long, it would be more friendly for a child, and be less traumatic, and you could have one tent where the Border Patrol came and the Border Patrol did all their processing there. ...

It seems easy, just give HHS most of that money. Give it to them and let them figure it out, and let Border Patrol go catch all the drug guys.

What is your estimation of CBP officers?

Lots of people want to make enemies of the Border Patrol. They want to demonize them just like [President Donald] Trump demonizes the immigrants. They are not demons.

They hire some of our best, best nieces and nephews in the Valley, because it鈥檚 a great job, great benefits. There are some great people in there. What they鈥檙e being asked to do goes against many of their morality and what they would consider right.

You said earlier that 鈥渋t has gotten increasingly worse.鈥� What do you mean by that?

First it鈥檚 the overcrowding. But the rhetoric around it in the last two years, the rhetoric about them being criminals, has made the atmosphere and the way that people talk about their time in the Border Patrol facilities more egregious than it was before.

When families come out, then what they talk about 鈥� about people kicking them, or about them abusing them 鈥� that has gotten worse. In the past migrants may have complained that it was cold, that they didn鈥檛 get good food and they kept the lights on all the time, but it wasn鈥檛 this constant, 鈥極h, and they abused us.鈥� You鈥檇 hear some, but not like this.

Maybe people are just frustrated because there鈥檚 so many. But this kind of behavior 鈥� we should be prepared for this. We don鈥檛 have to become animals.

What does that mean? That 鈥渨e should be prepared for this鈥�?

I think we can keep our core morality and our basic values in how to treat human beings when we鈥檙e faced with a humanitarian crisis. If we had just 10 arriving every day forever and ever and we treated them well, and then we suddenly got, for whatever reason, a hundred every day, we don鈥檛 have to start abusing them. You treat them like a human being, with dignity.

Sometimes I鈥檒l fall down and cry. It鈥檚 like, this is not OK. It鈥檚 not what we would have our grandkids or kids be exposed to. And once you get to know them, once you see them and play with them, then it becomes a real atrocity. As long as it鈥檚 over there and you鈥檙e just seeing it in the news, it doesn鈥檛 hit you as much as if they鈥檙e running through here and you鈥檝e got them in your arms. And then it鈥檚, 鈥淒on鈥檛 you dare touch this kid.鈥�