A group of doctors seeking to vaccinate migrants detained by President Donald Trump’s Customs and Border Patrol were denied at the gates of the Chula Vista Border Patrol Station in San Ysidro, San Diego Monday.
“Refusing to vaccinate is inhumane,” tweeted Immigrant Families Together director Julie Schwietert Collazo. “The agency is willingly putting lives at risk of death.”
It was the latest example of what critics of the administration call the “intentional cruelty” of Trump’s immigration policies.
“People are needlessly suffering and dying,” said Dr. Marie DeLuca, one of the physicians who was turned away. “You can’t lock people up in inhumane conditions, watch them get sick, and then refuse them access to medical care.”
Doctors outside CBP San Ysidro with 120 doses of flu vaccines are asking government to allow them to vaccinate migrant children in detention for free.
Trump administration refuses to vaccinate children in CBP custody even after 3 children died of the flu.https://t.co/SHRd37wcQu https://t.co/pfSuQmuEFr— F A R R A H F A Z A L (@FarrahFazal) December 9, 2019
The doctors were supported by a coalition of immigration advocates, including the groups Doctors for Camp Closures, Families Belong Together, and Never Again Action. Monday’s action marks the beginning of a planned week of action by the doctors and others at Chula Vista.
WATCH: Immigrants are dying from the flu. These doctors have been asking for permission to deliver free vaccines for months, and CBP just ignores them.
So now they’re at the gates of a detention center in person, living out their oath to provide care.
Follow @Doc4CampClosure. pic.twitter.com/omlW8nOFus
— ✡️ Never Again Action ✡️ (@NeverAgainActn) December 9, 2019
In a statement, Families Belong Together chair Jess Morales Rocketto said that recent reporting from ProPublica on the death from flu and border patrol inaction of an immigrant child in detention gave the protest added urgency.
“This administration’s cruel immigration agenda is intentionally barring life-saving medical care from children by refusing to provide vaccines during flu season,” said Rocketto. “Earlier this year, as immigration authorities sat by, 16-year-old Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez died from the flu on the floor of his concrete jail cell.”
Our statement from Families Belong Together Chairwoman @JessLivMo on today’s action and our demand to let doctors treat children. #FluVaccines4Migrants pic.twitter.com/KxwmCm0hCz
— Families Belong Together (@fams2gether) December 9, 2019
The flu deaths and detention conditions are just the precursor to a greater horror, said Never Again Action LA spokesperson Jamie Goodman.
“We recognize these conditions from what many of our ancestors narrowly escaped,” Goodman said. “Genocide doesn’t start with death camps, it starts with what CBP concentration camps look like right now.”
Help us Prepare for Trump’s Day One
Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
As journalists, we have a responsibility to look at hard realities and communicate them to you. We hope that you, like us, can use this information to prepare for what’s to come.
And if you feel uncertain about what to do in the face of a second Trump administration, we invite you to be an indispensable part of Truthout’s preparations.
In addition to covering the widespread onslaught of draconian policy, we’re shoring up our resources for what might come next for progressive media: bad-faith lawsuits from far-right ghouls, legislation that seeks to strip us of our ability to receive tax-deductible donations, and further throttling of our reach on social media platforms owned by Trump’s sycophants.
We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
We urgently need your help to prepare. As you know, our December fundraiser is our most important of the year and will determine the scale of work we’ll be able to do in 2025. We’ve set two goals: to raise $104,000 in one-time donations and to add 1340 new monthly donors by midnight on December 31.
Today, we’re asking all of our readers to start a monthly donation or make a one-time donation – as a commitment to stand with us on day one of Trump’s presidency, and every day after that, as we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation. You’re an essential part of our future – please join the movement by making a tax-deductible donation today.
If you have the means to make a substantial gift, please dig deep during this critical time!
With gratitude and resolve,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy