A senior government official and Homeland Security Department doctor said that he thinks the children in migrant detention centers are getting the same care as his own children.
“I’m a doctor and a parent. I’m very comfortable in my own skin, and I would do for these folks what I would want done for my own children. I take care of everyone in our care like I would want my own children taken care of,” the homeland security doctor told CNN. “The medical care has been good so far and I’m proud of what we’ve done.”
Pride? Since September, at least six children have died in federal custody and four have died in or just after they were released from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody. On top of that, doctors have come forward to say that the medical care given to migrants and their children is not acceptable.
A pediatrician caring for migrant children at an El Paso hospital told CNN that CBP’s medical screening for children in its custody is “absolutely and unequivocally inadequate.” The CBP has also turned down offers from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to send people to better train CBP medical staff.
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“We have pediatricians who would volunteer to go to the border tomorrow and work with these children and advise medical personnel and train them,” said Dr. Colleen Kraft, immediate past president of the AAP. “That’s still our ask, but it’s gotten nowhere.”
Dr. Sara Goza, the current president of the pediatricians’ group, went on a tour of two CBP facilities last week, and told CNN that she “did not encounter a single pediatrician at either one.”
The Homeland Security doctor who said the migrant children were getting the same care as his own children, admitted that CBP has a pediatrician only advising the agency part-time.
