Border Officials Refuse to Provide Flu Vaccines to Immigrants Despite Death of Three Children

The definition of torture is the “practice of inflicting severe pain on someone as a punishment.” We know the Trump Administration is practically torturing undocumented immigrants detained at various detention camps by separating them from their families, denying them hygiene products, denying them water, forcing them to endure harassment and abuse by untrained employees, and detaining them longer.

The Trump Administration’s latest form of torture denies detained migrant families basic healthcare, including not administering them with the flu vaccine.

“In general, due to the short term nature of CBP holding, the time the vaccine takes to begin working, and the complexities of operating vaccination programs, neither CBP nor its medical contractors administer vaccinations to those in our custody,” a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in a statement to CBS News.

This statement is flawed. Migrant families are being detained for long periods of time. The way officials get away with it, under the law, is to continuously transfer them to other detainment centers.

Doctors have already noted that CBP is not following medical screenings of incoming detainees and that officials have had to quarantine people multiples times because of the outbreak of disease. Three undocumented children have already died of the flu under the mishandling of the CBP.

No flu vaccines on top of inhumanly close quarters, poor hygiene and medical care? This is how you spell genocide. https://t.co/04bnqywQWS

— lada (@ladamaria) August 21, 2019

People on social media are calling this torture of detainees a form of genocide, and here’s why: under Hitler rule, while some Jews died in gas chambers, others died because of disease. Last month, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) internal watchdog released a harrowing report about the health dangers inside detention centers.

“We are concerned that overcrowding and prolonged detention represent an immediate risk to the health and safety of DHS agents and officers, and to those detained,” the report said.

The CBP and the Trump Administration don’t seem to be too worried — or worried at all — about the health risks migrant families are being exposed to and who falls victim to them because if they did, immediate action would be taken to help these communities. Flu season begins in October and will last through January — possibly longer. Something tells us the ramifications of this year’s flu season will last longer than a couple of months.