The United States Border Patrol is struggling to keep up with the number of sick migrants that require hospital attention when they arrive at the border.
According to a report Customs and Border Protection (CBP), agents sent 2,224 migrants to U.S. hospitals in order to give them treatment for illnesses beyond the capabilities of the medical team at the border facilities. That means that 5.3 percent of the migrants who arrived at the border required hospitalization since December 22.
As IJR previously reported, migrants have been treated for illnesses including flu, parasites, tuberculosis, and pneumonia.
The CBP report also noted that the sick migrants don’t just take up medical resources. They also require a lot of time and supervision from other Border Patrol agents. According to the report, agents spent 19,299 hours driving sick migrants to and from hospitals in the last month.
“This means there are less agents performing border security duties,” CBP stated.
When the CBP’s staffing resources are consumed by migrants who need immediate medical attention, the processing time for health migrants increases due to depleted staffing resources.- READ MORE