The busiest Border Patrol facility in the U.S. was forced to shut down this week over a “flu-like” outbreak involving dozens of illegal immigrants that’s now infecting agents and the public.
At least 32 illegal immigrants tested positive for influenza and others are suffering symptoms of strep throat, viruses, and colds at the McAllen Central Processing Center in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, which forced officials to quarantine the facility to contain the outbreaks.
Border Patrol officials stopped transfers to and from the processing center Tuesday before re-opening on Wednesday, KGBT reports.
“Some of them are sick. Some of them have some type of virus or flu or cold but it just hasn’t shown up yet,” agent Chris Cabrera, with the National Border Patrol Council, told the news station. “And then what ultimately happens is once they get released they get on a bus, which is obviously a confined space, and they travel to other parts of the country with whatever they had with them along the way, which can range from strep throat to the flu to tuberculosis.”
“The majority of our agents are either sick or have been sick recently,” he said. “Every day we have people call in sick for real illnesses. There’s days when we have multiple, 10, 15, sometimes 19, 20 guys who call in sick because they’re sick from actually being in the building. – READ MORE